


Wednesday Edits

by kikikryslee



Series: The Taylor Times [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anal Sex, Angst, Blow Jobs, Bottom Harry, Bottom Louis, Break Up, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Homophobic Language, Jealousy, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Newspaper Editors, OT5 Friendship, Office Romance, Sequel, Shower Sex, Skype Sex, Smut, Top Harry, Top Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-03-09 08:30:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 166,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3243047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikikryslee/pseuds/kikikryslee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“<i>South Jersey Daily</i>; Louis Tomlinson speaking.”<br/>“I love you so much,” Harry gushed into the phone.<br/>“So you got the flowers, then?”<br/>“I did. And they’re beautiful. And I’m hanging up your card on my wall, right next to the message you wrote after graduation.”<br/>“I’m glad you liked them. I don’t want you to forget about me now that I'm not there anymore.”<br/>“I could never forget about you,” Harry assured.<br/>---<br/>Last year was the Year of Office Romances. But now that the seniors have graduated, the new staff of The Taylor Times will have to deal with a new school year, appropriately titled, the Year of Long-Distance Relationships.<br/>Let the drama and frustrations begin.<br/>FYI, This is the sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1098132/chapters/2209606">Monday Meetings</a>!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Breed of Editors

**Author's Note:**

> Since this is a sequel, I would advise reading Monday Meetings first, because there will be a lot of references to it. Although, I'll try to write it as best as I can so that you don't have to.
> 
> Also, just for reference, this is the staff for this year. In case you forgot or anything. 
> 
> September 2014  
> Executive – Danielle Peazer (senior)  
> Managing – Eleanor Calder (senior)  
> News – Leigh-Anne Pinnock (senior), Damien Hurley (junior)  
> Features – KJ Bennett (sophomore)  
> Entertainment – Tyler Anderson (sophomore)  
> Opinion – Cher Lloyd (junior)  
> Sports – Niall Horan (senior), Casey Callahan (sophomore)  
> Photos – Harry Styles (junior)  
> Ads – Jade Thirlwall (senior), Jesy Nelson (senior)
> 
> *This work is unbeta'ed, so all mistakes are my own!*
> 
>  
> 
> **DO NOT post this story or any of my other stories on any other websites. I'm not comfortable with that, and I hope that you can please respect that. If you see any of my stories on another website, please let me know. I am also NOT currently authorizing translations of any of my stories at this time. I hope you can respect that, as well. Thank you!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! Or, for new readers, Welcome!  
> A lot of you guys told me after I published Monday Meetings that I should post a sequel, and many of you told me while reading Branching Out that you couldn't wait to read this sequel, so here it is!  
> It picks up the summer after everybody graduated, so Summer 2014. It will follow the same basic format as MM, meaning the story will take place over the course of the school year.  
> I hope you enjoy the sequel! It's been a long time coming!

Harry didn’t want to be rude, but he _really_ wanted Dr. Higgins and Dr. Teasdale to shut up.

It was the annual _Taylor Times_ summer meeting, and the two of them were doing a presentation on the correct format to use in the articles that the editors and writers published.

He didn’t care. He was a photographer. He took photos. He assigned other students to take even more photos. Writing according to AP style wasn’t at the top of his priority list.

What was at the top, however, was getting out of the newspaper office, getting in his car and driving an hour south to his boyfriend’s house.

Harry hadn’t seen Louis in three weeks, since Fourth of July weekend, and let’s just say, Harry was eager to recreate some fireworks.

Harry examined the expressions of the other editors at the table.

Danielle Peazer and Eleanor Calder, the respective executive and managing editors, looked ready to take a nap themselves. A fine example of acting professional, they were.

Harry said that with love, of course. He knew the two girls were more than capable of running the paper now that Liam Payne had graduated.

Across the table from him sat KJ Bennett and Tyler Anderson, the Features and Entertainment editors, respectively.

The two boys were giving the advisers blank stares. Harry was sure neither one of the two new editors had cared enough to follow along.

Next to KJ sat Casey Callahan, the new Sports Editor. Harry wasn’t surprised that she looked the most awake. The girl had to have a traveling coffee IV somewhere.

Then there was the other Sports editor, Niall Horan; also one of Harry’s roommates. Harry was sure the Irishman had learned how to sleep with his eyes open in the month since he’d last seen him at Zayn Malik’s graduation party. The boy was sitting completely straight up, but had no life behind his eyes whatsoever.

At the other end of the table sat Leigh-Anne Pinnock, the returning News Editor, and Damien Hurley, the new one. The two of them were whispering to each other, pointing at something on the outline in front of them that detailed the articles for the mini issue.

Typical. When it came to News, there was never a moment to just _sit_. They had to constantly be thinking of questions and angles to make their stories the best.

And next to Harry was Cher Lloyd, the one who’d replaced Louis as Opinion Editor. For Harry, this had been the hardest change from last year’s staff. Last year, his boyfriend had sat in the seat next to him.

Well, Louis hadn’t always been his boyfriend. Once they pulled their heads out of their asses, got their shit together and finally became official, then they had been boyfriends who sat next to each other. Leading up to that point, they had experienced a roller coaster of emotions when it came to the other.

Currently, Cher sat with a pen in her hand, doodling on Harry’s left arm in between the multiple tattoos Harry already had there. Cher was very much like Louis in that way: didn’t give a shit if anybody knew how little she was really paying attention.

At least that would be the same from last year.

“Any questions?” Dr. Higgins asked, looking around the room.

“I think we’re all good.” Dani nodded after looking around the table at her coworkers.

“I think so, too,” Dr. Teasdale agreed. “We covered a lot of good information today.”

Eleanor snuck a glance at her cell phone and smiled at something she read there.

Harry figured she was happy at the fact that they would be done twenty minutes early.

Higgins and Teasdale wrapped up their presentation and then Dani began speaking.

“All right, guys, so make sure I have your housing information before you leave here today. Remember, we move in Wednesday, August 27, and we’ll be working on the mini issue on the 28th and 29th. However, Cher, if you learned anything from Louis, you’ll be done on the 28th.”

Cher looked up and grinned at the executive editor. “Trust me; I’ll be done the first day. Louis gave me some high standards to live up to.”

The other editors laughed quietly at her words.

As Opinion Editor, Cher, like Louis the three years before, would have the smallest section. Meaning, she would have the fewest articles to worry about, as well as not having any pictures to focus on.

Cher was lucky in that sense: she would almost always be done first; just like Louis.

“I think we can call it a day, then,” Dani said, checking with El for confirmation.

“I think so, too,” El confirmed.

“Cool. Well have a good day, then, guys. We’ll see you all on the 28th.”

The room cleared out a few minutes later, after they all got themselves together.

“Harry, Niall, can Dani and I talk to you for a minute before you go?” El called out.

 _So close,_ Harry thought to himself.

He had all of his stuff in his hands, just a few feet from the door.

He glanced over at Niall, who looked as confused as he did at what was going on.

“What’s up?” Harry wondered, sitting back down in his seat.

“Yeah, what do we need to talk to them about?” Dani questioned.

“Give me one minute,” El stalled, checking her phone again.

The three confused editors exchanged a look before getting comfortable.

A knock at the door grabbed everyone’s attention.

“I’ll get it.” El jumped up.

Harry, Niall and Dani twisted in their seats to get a view of who was coming in.

Once the door was opened, Liam walked in, followed closely by Josh Devine, the former Sports editor who graduated last year.

“What are you doing here?” Dani squealed, getting out of her seat. She hurried over to Liam and gave him a huge hug.

“Wanted to surprise you.” Liam grinned, wrapping his arms around her.

Niall, however, still stood in his spot by the table. “Josh?” he muttered.

Josh smiled. “Hey, babe.” 

Niall pressed his lips together and dropped his stuff on the table before darting over and flinging himself at his boyfriend.

“I missed you so much,” Niall spoke lowly.

“I missed you, too,” Josh returned.

Harry remembered Niall telling him earlier that the two of them hadn’t seen each other in person since Zayn’s graduation party.

Josh had wound up getting the internship at CSN that he’d applied for earlier in the summer, and his training had begun almost immediately. Meanwhile, Niall worked five days a week at his job at a sports camp for kids.

Their schedules had matched up even less times than Louis and Harry’s had.

Speaking of the blue-eyed graduate, Harry must’ve been distracted by Liam and Josh’s appearances, because he didn’t notice his own boyfriend come sneaking in until he was right behind him.

“Miss me?” Harry heard whispered in his own ear.

He jumped before he turned around.

There he was: Louis Tomlinson, Taylor University graduate, entry-level journalist and Harry’s boyfriend of about four-and-a-half months. Right in front of him.

Harry’s face broke into a wide smile as he nearly fell out of his chair, eager to kiss him.

As soon as their lips met, Harry felt himself relax. He’d been so tense at the thought of getting on the road to get to Louis’ house, and that tension was quickly disappearing now that his boyfriend was already with him.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Harry said, pulling back from him after a moment.

“Good surprise?” Louis wondered, raising his eyebrows quickly.

“Very good.”

Harry pecked Louis’ lips once more before looking at El and asking, “Did you plan this?”

She held her hands up. “I had no responsibility for this. I just had to make sure the three of you didn’t leave too soon. Thank Josh for the idea.”

“This was all you?” Niall gasped. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Hey, I have good ideas from time to time,” he defended himself.

“Just few and far between?”

“That’s right.” Josh laughed.

“All right, well before you guys get all couple-y,” El cut in, “I’m gonna head out. Have fun with the rest of your day!”

“Thanks, El,” they called out.

“So what should we do?” Niall asked once El left.

“We actually have to go,” Louis replied. “We got Zayn and Perrie waiting for us at Angelo’s.”

“Zayn and Perrie are here, too?” Dani exclaimed. “Yay! I haven’t seen them in so long!”

“Well what are we waiting for, then?” Harry asked.

The six of them headed out. Harry locked the door behind them.

Liam had come up with Louis, but he jumped in Dani’s car, as she said she would take him home after the restaurant.

Josh and Niall took Niall’s car, while Louis and Harry took Louis’.

The couple spent the twenty-minute drive updating each other on work.

“So then, Trevor goes,“ Harry imitated a young child’s voice, “Mr. Harry, I don’t feel so good.”

“Oh, no.” Louis grinned, sensing where the story was going.

“So I said, ‘well Trevor, point to what hurts.’ And before I could finish, the kid’s throwing up _everywhere._ ”

“Ugh, that’s disgusting.”

“Tell me about it.” Harry rolled his eyes. “So I had to call my director and get the mop; meanwhile, I’m trying to get this kid changed out of his gross clothes. And my co-teacher has to keep the other kids distracted so that they don’t make fun of poor Trevor and his weak stomach. It was a nightmare.”

“But you got through it, right?”

“Of course I did. He got cleaned up, and so did the floor. I called his parents and they took him to the doctor that day. Apparently, he had a stomach virus. So now, all the other families are on high alert, just in case their kids catch it.”

“That’s awful.” Louis shook his head.

“Well so far, nobody else has gotten it, so we might be in the clear; fingers crossed.”

“I’ll cross my fingers for you, too.”

“Thank you. So how’s your job? Do anything exciting lately?”

“Not really. I mean, we had a fire in the kitchen the other day. And before you ask, no, I didn’t start it.”

Harry smiled. “I wasn’t going to ask that.”

“Sure you weren’t.”

“I swear; I wasn’t.”

“OK.”

“How are things with Nick?” Harry wondered.

“Meh.”

Louis was convinced that his boss, Nick Grimshaw, had it out for him. Usually, he was the one that Nick sent out for coffee or was the last one who heard about schedule changes.

Harry was convinced that Louis was being paranoid, but Louis wasn’t so sure. He could always see the look of disappointment that Nick had in his eyes every morning when Louis came in.

“What does that mean?”

“It means, that I don’t know,” Louis explained. “Like, sometimes I think we’re making progress, and then I do something stupid, like call sources in the wrong order or don’t immediately forward necessary information. I don’t know; it’s little stuff, I guess.”

“It’ll get better,” Harry assured. “Maybe he’s just testing you, you know what I mean? Like, seeing what you’re made of.”

“I hope so. Just wish he would test the other newbies as much as he’s testing me.”

Harry took Louis' hand in his own and gave it a light squeeze. He got a soft smile in return. 

“All right, where am I parking?” Louis wondered as they pulled into the parking lot.

“There’s Zayn’s truck,” Harry pointed out.

They parked in a spot a few spaces down from it, and got out.

Liam and Dani were just getting to the door as they did, and Niall and Josh weren’t far behind.

“They’re already here?” Harry asked as they walked in.

“Should be,” Josh answered.

“Hi.” Louis smiled, getting to the podium. “We’re actually meeting two people here: a guy with black hair and a girl with platinum blonde.”

“It’s pink now, actually,” they heard behind them.

They turned to see Perrie walking down the hallway from the bathroom, with, as she said, pale pink hair.

“Hi!” Dani exclaimed, giving her friend a big hug.

“It’s about time you guys showed up,” she grumbled against Dani’s shoulder.

“Really, we would’ve been here later,” Harry said. “The meeting actually let out a little early.”

“Well I’m glad.” Perrie grinned. “Come on, let’s go sit.”

They all followed her toward a large booth near the back, where Zayn sat, playing with his phone.

“There they are.” Zayn laughed, standing up to greet his friends. “The new breed of editors.”

“We’ve been the ‘new breed’ for like, two months already, Zayn,” Niall stated, giving his friend a hug. “Pay attention.”

“Yeah, but now it’s official. You guys had your summer meeting, and you’ll be moving back to campus in a few weeks.”

“You miss us yet?” Harry asked, giving Zayn a hug next.

“Of course. Not Louis, though; I see him like every day.”

“Not every day,” Louis defended.

“A lot of days.”

“I can’t help it that you live five minutes away from my job.”

“I guess.”

Harry couldn’t help but be a little jealous at that. Why couldn’t _he_ live five minutes from Louis’ job?

The group of them sat down and ordered drinks a few minutes later.

“So how is everyone?” Perrie questioned.

“Well Josh, congrats on CSN,” Dani complimented. “We knew you could do it.”

“Thank you.” Josh blushed slightly. “I’m still surprised I got it, to be honest.”

“Is it until December?” Zayn asked.

“Yeah, it is. I’ll find out after that if they want to keep me on. Sandy says that if I stay at the top of my game, they will. They always keep whoever they like.”

“They’ll keep you then,” Harry assured. “Why wouldn’t they?”

Josh shrugged. “There are a lot of people going for the same spot as me. It’s competitive.”

“So just work your ass off and you’ll have it,” Louis said as if it were obvious. “It’s nothing you’re not used to.”

“As if slacking off was ever an option.”

“Can’t believe that pretty soon, I’m gonna know two people that work at CSN,” Niall added, referring to Sandy Beales, their former executive editor who also worked for the company, and had been the person to get Josh his interview.

“Me, too,” Dani agreed.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Josh smiled. “Anyway, let’s talk about somebody else. Zayn? Perrie? How have your summers turned out?”

“Fine,” they said in unison.

“Uh-oh,” Harry said.

“What does ‘fine’ mean?” Dani wondered.

“It means that I’m working retail,” Perrie grimaced. “I went on a few interviews, but nothing happened there.”

“And I’m not working at all right now,” Zayn shrugged. “It’s rough. I know my dad is just dying to say, ‘I told you so.’”

“Where have you applied?” Niall inquired.

“Everywhere. Philly, New York and anywhere in between. I finally applied to one of those painting with wine places. You know, where the instructors walk you through painting a picture and the people are allowed to drink? I have that interview on Monday.”

“Better than nothing,” Liam said.

“Pretty much. We’ll see how it goes. Anyway… Liam, how’s your job?”

“It’s good,” Liam responded.

“Yeah, I can tell it’s going well by your texts,” Louis laughed. “The spelling’s much better.”

The others joined in with Louis.

“I told you guys I could do it!” Liam replied. “You all made fun of me when I told you about it.”

“I take back all mockery,” Dani swore.

“Thank you. That’s all I wanted.”

Just then, the waitress came up to their table and asked if they were ready to order. None of them had actually looked at the menu, so they had to request a few more minutes.

“You ready for the new year, Dani?” Louis asked while they all read through their options.

“You mean the new staff?” Dani changed the question. “I think they’ll be OK, honestly. Obviously, not as good as you guys were.”

“How sweet!” Josh exclaimed.

“Stop, you’re gonna make me blush,” Louis joked.

“I’m serious,” Dani continued. “We’re gonna miss you guys around that office. Harry, Niall, back me up.”

“Casey’s good, but she’s not as good as you are, Josh,” Niall added on.

“Cher’s a lot like you,” Harry offered, “but Lou, I would much rather have you sitting next to me.”

“Jeez, who knew we were friends with such saps?” Perrie whispered to Zayn.

He just shrugged in response.

\---

“Well, kids, it’s been real,” Niall said as the group stood outside nearly two hours later.

“We’ll have to do this again once the school year starts back up,” Perrie suggested.

“I’m down for that,” Louis agreed. “It’ll be easier to see you guys then, too.”

“ _A lot_ easier,” Harry nodded.

“Well until next time, then?” Zayn asked.

Ten minutes and one big group hug later, everyone had dispersed to the cars that they came in.

“You know what?” Louis started as he drove back to campus, “Can you let me into the office? I have to pee.”

“Why didn’t you pee before we left?” Harry asked.

“I didn’t have to go when we left. Plus, we were outside for a while. Please?”

“You’re lucky I love you.”

Louis just smiled.

By the time Louis parked behind the news office, Niall and Josh were already there, saying their goodbyes.

“You forget something?” Niall called out as Louis sprinted toward the door.

“Louis has to pee,” Harry replied.

“Don’t tell everybody my business, Harold!” Louis yelled as he did the potty dance.

Niall and Josh just laughed.

Once Harry unlocked the outside door, Louis dashed into the bathroom. Harry went into the office to wait for his boyfriend and sat down at his spot at the table. He checked his phone, seeing that it was almost 5 o’clock. By the time they got to Louis’ house, it would be about six, depending on traffic.

Being back in the office with Louis brought back memories of the last night all the editors had been together. He could go for a nice banana split right about now.

Since they just ate, Harry wasn’t hungry, so he thought about convincing Louis to take him to that ice cream place a few minutes from his house that he was always talking about.

“You cleared off the shelves,” Louis whined, walking back into the room. He shut the door behind him.

“We have to, babe,” Harry answered, standing up. “Not like we can keep them full every year.”

They were talking about the shelves against the wall behind Tyler and KJ’s seats. The shelves held copies of every issue _The Taylor Times_ published that year, just in case the editors or writers needed an extra one to keep or to send home to their parents. 

Louis walked up to the shelves and ran a hand along the top of it.

“I know you can’t, but it just looks wrong when it’s empty.”

“Sorry,” Harry apologized. He stood behind Louis and wrapped his arms around his waist.

“Not your fault. Guess we all have to move on eventually, huh?”

They stood there for a moment in silence before Louis turned around to face his boyfriend.

“You know what I kind of always wanted to do?”

“What?” Harry smirked.

Instead of saying anything, Louis leaned up and kissed Harry square on the mouth. He stepped forward, slowly pushing his boyfriend back toward the table.

“What are you doing?” Harry mumbled when he pulled his lips away.

“What do you think?” Louis asked. He started sucking lightly at Harry’s neck, running his hands up and down his sides.

“Teasing?”

“Nope.”

“Then what?”

“I’m gonna blow you in the office.”

Harry pulled back suddenly. Using his element of surprise, Louis pushed him back on the table and stepped between his open legs.

“Are you serious?” Harry gasped.

“Yup,” Louis answered. He started undoing Harry’s fly. “Are you opposed to it?”

“Well no, but-“

“Then lay back and enjoy.”

Louis pushed up Harry’s shirt so he could kiss along his flat stomach.

Harry kept himself propped up on his elbows so he could watch his boyfriend massage his hands all over his lower body.

Louis pulled Harry’s shorts off him and dropped them to the floor before returning his attention to Harry’s cock. He cupped Harry through his briefs, feeling him start to harden.

“This is so wrong.” Harry shook his head.

“I don’t think you believe that.” Louis grinned as he teasingly pulled Harry’s underwear down around his thighs and off his legs.

“People are going to sit here, where my bare ass has been.”

“Yup.”

Louis took Harry’s cock in his hand, thumbing at the head while he started kissing his skin again. He started at his belly button and slowly worked his way down.

By this point, Harry was just about fully hard, and his breathing had gotten significantly louder.

When Louis finally started lapping at the head, Harry almost lost it. He dropped his head to the table and, as Louis suggested earlier, laid back and enjoyed.

Louis started slowly, just giving long licks to the underside of Harry’s dick and leaving kisses behind, while using his other hand to hold Harry’s hips down.

Then Louis took Harry in his mouth, and Harry shot a hand down to grab onto Louis’ hair.

“Oh, my God,” he sighed, feeling warmth and wetness around his cock.

Louis popped off for just a second. “You really did miss me, huh?”

“So fucking much. Don’t stop, though.”

Louis returned his lips to where they were, and started slowly bobbing his head up and down.

Harry spread his legs wider and Louis got impossibly closer.

For a while, the only sounds in the room were Harry’s deep breaths as he tried to hold off and the sucking sounds Louis’ lips made as they moved around Harry’s dick.

Harry found himself biting his lower lip as Louis blew him. It was all he could do. He wasn’t close enough to the edge of the table to grab on to it, and the hand in Louis’ hair could only hold on so tightly.

He was about to tell Louis that he was close, and then everything stopped.

“No, no,” he whined, letting go of Louis’ hair. He looked down to see Louis wiping his mouth off. “What are you doing? Why did you stop?”

“So I can do this,” Louis smirked.

And then he ducked his head down again and started lapping at Harry’s rim.

“Fuck!” Harry yelled, his back arching off the table. “Louis, oh my God.”

Unsatisfied with the current angle, Louis grabbed Harry’s long legs and pushed them up toward Harry’s body, giving him a clear shot at Harry’s hole.

Harry whimpered while Louis quickly licked and sucked, driving Harry closer to his orgasm.

Louis was holding onto Harry’s body so tightly that he knew there would be bruises or nail marks left behind somewhere.

Harry bit down on his fist to keep from screaming. He was absolutely sure that his face was sweaty and tear-stained, but he didn’t care. If he had to look that way while getting eaten out, then so be it.

"Move your hand," Louis ordered. 

Harry obliged, watching his boyfriend extend a finger. 

"Suck."

Harry took the finger into his mouth and got it as slick with spit as he could, positive he knew what Louis' next move would be. 

He definitely wasn't opposed to that, either.

“Louis," he moaned when the older boy pulled his finger out of his mouth, "I’m really- Oh, God,” he cut himself off when Louis started pushing into him.

“What was that?” Louis asked, pulling off again for just a second.

“I said- Oh!” Harry gasped when Louis crooked his finger and grazed over his prostate.

“Can’t hear you.”

“I’m really fucking close, OK! That’s what I said.”

Harry was squirming now, just needing to find his release.

“Louis, please. Please.”

Louis responded by leaving his finger right where it was and moving his mouth back to Harry’s dick.

Hollowing his cheeks, he started bobbing his head up and down faster than he had before.

Harry gulped for air, unable to even breathe normally anymore. He pounded at the table once, twice, before finally feeling himself being overcome.

“Shit,” he shouted once more before coming in Louis’ mouth.

Louis sucked him through it, keeping his finger still and applying solid pressure to Harry’s prostate.

“Oh, my God,” Harry repeated as he came down. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“Good?” Louis wondered while he gently slipped his finger out.

“Good?” Harry looked at Louis with a look of shock. “More than good.”

He sat up as quickly as he could and yanked Louis to him, kissing him hard on the mouth.

The two of them stayed there for a minute, just kissing and holding each other close.

“Wait,” Harry realized, pulling back. “Shit, let me…”

He desperately started tugging at the top of Louis’ shorts, eager to pull them down.

“You don’t have to,” Louis shook his head.

“Huh?”

“Just, seeing you get all worked up like that… Plus, it’s been a while, so, um. Yeah, you don’t have to.”

“Really?” Harry understood.

“Yeah." Louis laughed. "It’ll be an uncomfortable drive home.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s all right. I can cross one more thing off my bucket list.”

“I fucking love you.” Harry smiled.

“I fucking love you, too. Now come on; there’s a couple of girls at my house who have been looking forward to seeing you.”

“OK,” Harry said.

He jumped down and started to redress himself.

“Oh, wait,” he paused. “Do I have total sex hair?”

“Kind of. Just drive with your windows down. You can blame it on the wind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut in the first chapter?! OMG, who am I?  
> But in all seriousness, it's a lot harder to write a sequel than just a regular story. So, I promise I'm trying to make this as good or better than MM, but don't be disappointed if it's not. =/  
> Anyway, this will probably be a long story, too. Just a fair warning.  
> Next chapter will be up Tuesday!


	2. Moving In

“I’m putting it down.”

“Zayn, don’t put it down yet.”

“I’m about to drop it, Niall; let go!”

“No, don’t put it down yet!”

“I’m dropping it.”

“No! Damn it, Zayn!”

Niall jumped back quickly, his foot narrowly avoiding getting smashed by the leg of the futon he and Zayn had carried into the apartment.

“You could’ve broken my foot,” Niall complained.

“I literally just said I was dropping it,” Zayn huffed. “Why didn’t you move your foot?”

“Because I wasn’t ready! I don’t know if I want the futon there.”

“Why not? It’s where we had it in the apartment last year. You already know it fits there.”

“Exactly. It was there last year. I don’t know if I want it to be exactly the same. Maybe I want to mix it up a little.”

Zayn rolled his eyes. “Niall…”

“Zayn…”

“Hey guys,” Harry interrupted his two friends’ bickering. “How did you get the cable to work on your TV last year? I feel like it’s different here than it was in the dorms.”

“I didn’t do it,” Zayn said.

“Liam set it all up last year,” Niall explained.

Harry looked at the remotes he held in his hands once more before double-checking all of the wires. Everything was plugged in the way it was supposed to be. But for whatever reason, the cable wasn’t connecting.

“Well Liam can set it up again this year,” Harry decided.

He tossed the remotes on the coffee table and plopped himself down on the couch.

“Speaking of, when is Liam getting here?” Zayn wondered.

He walked away from the futon and sat down next to Harry.

“Later,” Niall answered. “He’s meeting Dani at her apartment and going out to dinner with her and her parents.”

It was Wednesday, August 27th, the day Harry and Niall moved in to their apartment.

Their parents had left them a few hours ago, after making the boys promise to do as well as they had last year and to keep in touch once the semester had officially started.

The second they were gone, of course, the boys unpacked the alcohol they had secretly packed away and loaded up the fridge.

Zayn had just dropped by to deliver the futon from last school year, as the two of them had begged him to keep it for them instead of giving it away.

“So what’s this year gonna be like?” Zayn questioned, propping his feet up.

“What do you mean?” Niall asked.

“Like last year, this was the hangout for all you news people. Is it going to be like that this year?”

“I don’t know.”

“Didn’t really think about it, to be honest,” Harry admitted. “I mean, last year, it was sort of a given, since all four of you guys were newspaper-related. This year, it’s just two of us.”

“But the staff from last year at least knew Jake.” Zayn shrugged. “He came around enough.”

“And Xander can hang about as good as I can,” Niall continued. “I don’t know. We’ll see, I guess. It depends on the others.”

“Maybe we’ll do half here and half at the girls’?”

“Which girls?” Zayn asked.

“Leigh, Jade and Jesy,” Harry answered. “They got a triple in East. El and Dani are off-campus this year. That could be fun sometimes, but I don’t know if we’ll all feel like driving, you know?”

“Yeah, driving is no fun; it’s better on-campus. Although technically, Harry, this apartment shouldn’t have any alcohol at all since you and Jake aren’t 21 yet.”

“Fucking February birthday,” Harry muttered. “Jake’s lucky. His is at least in October. He won’t have to wait that long.”

“What are we doing for your 21st, anyway?” Niall wanted to know.

“Louis mentioned going down to Atlantic City. It just comes down to when. Like, rooms are way more expensive on the weekends.”

“You could try going down on a Sunday night,” Zayn suggested. “Louis would just have to take a day off of work. And you guys could probably skip morning classes just once.”

“That’s a good idea,” Harry agreed. “As long as Ni and I are back for the Monday meeting, it should be OK.”

“Obviously, I’m down for whatever,” Niall said. “We should make this a whole group thing, though. As many people as possible.”

“I just want to gamble. Louis said we could all find a club if we wanted to, but I like the idea of just finding a bar and playing some slots.”

“Sometimes that’s more fun,” Zayn said. “So obviously it’ll be us four. Liam. Josh. We keeping this a boys’ weekend or inviting Perrie and Dani?”

“Yeah, definitely; the more, the merrier. I’ll probably just invite everyone, and whoever can come, comes.”

“And, we’re going to the city again over break, right?” Niall grinned. “We said we would.”

Harry nodded. “Absolutely. Where else should we go this year, Niall?”

He just shrugged. “I don’t know. I planned a pretty great trip last year. Don’t know how I’ll top myself.”

“With great power, comes great responsibility,” Zayn spoke lowly. “It’s up to you, Niall.”

“Well Harry can help this year. Since he knows it’s coming.”

“I can. I say we see the tree again, and maybe go ice skating, too.”

Zayn hesitated. “Not sure about that one. I’ve never been.”

“Well that settles it,” Niall declared. “Now we have to go.”

“Can you ice skate, Niall?” Harry asked.

“Of course. There’s an indoor rink in my town where my friends and I go. I’ve known how since I was a kid.”

“Cool.” Harry grinned. “So we’ll ice skate and see the tree that night. We just have to figure out what to do during the day.”

“We have time,” Niall brushed it off. “I’m excited, though. New York _and_ A.C.? I knew it was going to be a great year.”

“You know what would also be great?” Zayn asked.

“What?”

“Ordering pizza. I’m starving.”

“Let’s do it,” Niall said. “I still remember the number for Misso’s, actually.”

While he ordered, Harry checked his phone to see a message from Louis.

**_Louis: I’m sorry, babe. Headache hasn’t gone away yet. Is it OK if I just come up on Saturday?_ **

Harry willed himself not to pout. His boyfriend had told him earlier that he wasn’t sure if he would be able to come up today.

He said that he had a huge headache, and might stay home to go to bed early.

**_Harry: Of course it is! I just hope you feel better. And when you come up Saturday, you can at least spend the night. ;)_ **

**_Louis: Definitely. I can’t wait to start sleeping in cramped college beds again._ **

**_Harry: Yeah, I’m sure you’ve missed those._ **

**_Louis: Of course I have. It meant I got to sleep next to you._ **

Harry smiled. Louis still surprised him with how sweet he could be sometimes.

“All right, pizza’s on its way,” Niall announced, breaking Harry out of his conversation. “I got cheesy bread, too, Harry.”

Harry silently threw one fist up in the air, happy to hear the news.

“Louis’ not coming,” he told his friends a minute later. “His headache hasn’t let up.”

Zayn sighed. “Bummer."

“Tell him to come up this weekend,” Niall added.

“He is. Probably bright and early Saturday morning, just to be a pain in the ass.”

“Just tell him not to wake me up,” Niall warned. “Yo, are we having an editors’ party again? Like we had last year?”

“We can.” Harry shrugged. “Jake and Xander aren’t moving in until Sunday, so it doesn’t really matter. We can at least offer.”

“OK.”

“Harry, you have a balcony?”

He looked up to see Zayn looking out the living room windows.

“Oh, I guess we do,” he realized. “Yeah, we’re on the second floor.”

“Don’t tell Louis that,” Zayn warned.

Niall started laughing.

“Wait, why?”

“He’ll want you to go out on it,” Niall answered.

Each of the campus apartment buildings had balconies outside of the windows of whichever second-floor apartments were above the building’s entrances.

This year, that was Harry and Niall’s apartment, and whoever’s apartment was across the hall from them.

However, it wasn’t a balcony the students could actually use. It was more of a decoration for the outside of the building.

The windows overlooking the balconies had screens in them, and the balcony wasn’t even with the floors in the apartment. It was actually another foot or so lower.

“He wanted to do that last year, with the guys who lived below us, but we wouldn’t let him,” Zayn continued. “Like, I’m sure there’s rules against breaking through a window screen and going on the balcony. And I mean, if campus security just happened to be strolling by, it would be nearly impossible to hide, you know what I mean?”

Harry nodded.

The balcony only had a thin white railing going around the outside. It wasn’t thick enough to hide them if they crouched behind it, and if anybody looked closely enough, they could probably be seen even if they were lying face down on it.

“But Louis doesn’t go here any more, so he’ll be dying to get out there,” Niall stated.

“So I have to be extra careful, then?” Harry asked.

“Pretty much.”

“Otherwise, you might wake up to find Louis here one day with a bunch of power tools and a stepladder,” Zayn laughed.

“You really think Louis would go that far just to break through the window and out on the balcony?”

Niall and Zayn both fixed Harry with a _Really?_ look.

“Point taken,” he sighed.

\---

When Louis finally left work for the day, he immediately sat in his car and rested his forehead against the steering wheel.

He let out a deep sigh and reminded himself that in just twenty minutes, he would be home.

He could put on his sweats, take some ibuprofen and pass the fuck out right away.

Of course, he would rather be hopping on the highway to go see Harry’s apartment and see what his boyfriend had set up, but it just wasn’t in the cards today.

The pounding in his head wouldn’t allow it.

He just hoped it would let up so he could go up on Saturday instead.

Taking a deep breath, he put the keys in the ignition and started the car, soon backing out of his parking space and heading toward home.

When he got there, he was surprised to see his mom’s car in the driveway.

It was Wednesday, and usually, Jay worked until 8 on Wednesdays.

Why was she home before 6?

He walked into the house to find his mom resting on the couch. She was covered up with a blanket and had one arm thrown across her face, covering her eyes.

He could hear Lottie and Fizzy upstairs in their room and the twins outside in the backyard.

“Oh, no, you’re not sick, too, are you?” Louis wondered as he kicked off his shoes.

“Not sick, just… Blah,” Jay answered. “I got sent home early.”

“I see that. What happened?”

“I almost threw up on a patient.”

“Ew! Mom, what happened?”

“I don’t know.” Jay shrugged one shoulder. “Just, one minute, I was responding to a call from a woman who was asking if her pain pills had been sent up from the pharmacy, and the next, I was covering my mouth with my hand and bolting from the room. It was terrible.”

“No wonder they sent you home,” Louis yawned.

Jay nodded. “Luckily there was someone who could come in early to cover me. I should be OK tomorrow, though. I already feel better. I took some Pepto when I got home and I’ve been sipping ginger ale.”

“Did you actually get sick at work or just feel like it?”

“Oh, I got sick, all right: once at work and once here. But I promise I’m better.”

“You better be. There can’t be two of us sick at the same time.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Jay questioned.

“Just a headache. It’s nothing big, but I didn’t want to risk driving up to see Harry with it.”

“Yeah, that makes me happier, too, to be honest.”

“I’m just gonna take some medicine and go lay down.”

“Kay. Feel better.”

“You, too.”

He went up to his room and changed into his sweats before pulling his phone out again to text Harry.

**_Louis: What are you guys up to?_ **

**_Harry: Waiting for pizza to get here. Setting up the living room now. Nothing interesting, I promise._ **

**_Louis: Play FIFA or something._ **

**_Harry: TV's still not set up. I’m gonna make Liam fix it when he gets here._ **

**_Louis: Ha! I’ve had a bad influence on you._ **

**_Harry: The worst. But I still love you._ **

**_Louis: Love you, too._ **

\---

Liam pulled into a parking space and turned off the car for now.

“So, this weekend?” Dani prodded from the passenger seat. “You know you want to come back up.”

“I don’t know,” Liam sighed. “I mean, you’re _so far_ from my house. I don’t know if I can make the long drive.”

“Shut up! Come on, you should come back. Josh might be coming up on Saturday, and Zayn will probably stop by, and you know how long it’s been since the group of you were all together.”

“You know I was already definitely coming over, right?” Liam smiled. “You didn’t really need to convince me.”

“I know. You can’t resist a good group reunion.”

“You know me so well.”

“I know that, too." Dani shrugged. "Well go see your boyfriends. Thanks for coming to dinner with my parents, by the way.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “And I’ll see you Saturday. Have fun working on the paper. Don’t get overwhelmed.”

“I won’t. I’m ready for this. It’s gonna be a great year.”

“With you in charge, I expect nothing less.”

Dani beamed. “Thank you. All right, now get out of here.” She leaned over and kissed Liam quickly. “See you Saturday."

“See you Saturday,” he repeated as she got out of the car. “I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

He waited until she was in her apartment building before he left.

It was only a few minutes away from campus, so he was soon pulling up outside of Harry and Niall’s building.

Since there was barely anybody at school yet, it wasn’t a problem parking next to Zayn’s truck.

Besides, if campus security randomly went by, he and Zayn still had their parking stickers on their cars from last year. At a quick glance, it would look like their cars belonged in the parking lot.

**_Liam: im out front. someone let me in_ **

He waited for one of the boys to open the front door, since he could no longer open it himself without a valid ID.

Zayn walked down a moment later and let him in.

“What’s up, bro?” Zayn asked as they walked to the stairwell.

“Nothing new since I saw you over the weekend.”

“Just wanted to make sure." 

On Saturday, Zayn had Liam and Louis over to his uncle’s house again for an impromptu pool party.

Ah, the perks of still living close together.

“Just a heads up,” Zayn warned, as they reached the top of the steps, “Harry’s probably going to have you work the cable. He can’t get it to connect.”

“No problem.” Liam shrugged.

“I figured as much.”

They walked into the unlocked apartment to find Harry and Niall gorging themselves on pizza.

“Liam!” Niall greeted through his mouth full of food.

“Hey, Ni,” Liam laughed. He sat down on the futon next to Zayn, who also began a slice of pizza.

“Liam, can I ask you a favor?” Harry smiled widely.

“Fix your cable?”

Harry furrowed his brow, before coming to the realization. “Zayn! You could’ve let me ask him!”

Zayn shrugged.

“Let me see the remotes,” Liam offered as he stood back up.

Harry handed them over immediately and Liam took them in his hands.

He checked the wires behind the television and found one that wasn’t hooked up to the right port.

After that, he waited a minute before pressing some buttons on the remote in his right hand.

“OK, that should do it,” Liam announced as ESPN came on the screen.

“Good choice, Liam,” Niall praised. He sat back and watched the highlights from a soccer game the night before.

“How did you do that?” Harry wondered.

“Don’t worry about it,” Liam joked.

He sat back down and grabbed a piece of cheesy bread.

“Thanks for coming over, Liam,” Harry said.

“No problem. Figured I’d come over now before you guys get all crazy with the paper and school and everything. Plus, Dani wanted to get unpacked and go to bed early for tomorrow.”

“You definitely taught her well,” Zayn smirked.

“A good executive editor is nothing if not punctual.”

“Sure, Liam.”

“Is she nervous about being in charge yet?” Niall asked.

“Doesn’t seem like it. She said it’ll be a great year, and I know it will be.”

“Duh,” Niall scoffed. “She has the second greatest staff in the history of _The Taylor Times._ Why wouldn’t it be a great year?”

“Yeah, obviously, last year’s was the greatest staff ever,” Harry agreed.

“Hey, speaking of, where’s Louis?” Liam wondered, realizing his former roommate wasn’t there.

“He had a bad headache,” Harry answered. “He wasn’t up for driving today.”

“That sucks.”

“It does. But we’ll see him on Saturday, so it’s all good.”

“We can’t be hungover for that,” Niall commented.

“Obviously not, Niall. Did you just realize that?”

“Well no, but don’t let me forget on Friday night when we inevitably drink with everybody.”

“You having them over here?” Liam questioned.

Niall shrugged. “Maybe. I’ll tell everybody tomorrow and see. You think El and Dani would want to have people over?”

“Negative. They don’t have the place decorated at all. When I got there earlier, El hadn’t even started unpacking, and Dani only had half of her stuff put away. She _might_ finish tonight.”

“The other girls are probably the same way,” Zayn told them.

“Well it’s official, Niall,” Harry said. “We’re having a party on Friday.”

“Cool.”

\---

On Thursday afternoon, Harry sat at his office desk.

At the moment, he wasn’t editing any pictures; so instead, he was texting Jake.

**_Jake: tell me how my dad is making me bring back my mini fridge from last year_ **

**_Harry: But we have an actual fridge. We don’t need a mini one._ **

**_Jake: try telling him that. he said he doesn’t want it in the garage any more. because it’s obviously taking up sooo much space._ **

**_Harry: I mean, I guess we can put it in the living room? Like, have drinks at easy access?_ **

**_Jake: that’s the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard._ **

**_Jake: let’s do it._ **

Harry laughed at his roommate.

Just then, Niall walked in with a slip of paper in his hand.

“What’s so funny?”

“Jake. He’s bringing his mini fridge with him when he comes up on Sunday.”

“Why?”

“Because his dad doesn’t want it in the garage any more. I don’t know. Whatever; we’ll have another fridge.”

“Oh. OK. Anyway, here, can you do these photos for me?”

Harry nodded, taking the paper from him.

“Harry!” El called from the main office. “Come out here for a second?”

Harry furrowed his brow, not sure what El could want.

He got up, though, Niall following behind him.

“What…?” he gasped when he saw what was in front of him.

El was placing a large bouquet of flowers on the editors’ table, and smiled at him when he walked out.

“Delivery,” she announced.

“For me?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, for you. And look, there’s a card.”

Harry walked over and, aware that all eyes were on him, pulled out the card and slowly opened it.

He couldn’t stop the sappy grin that overtook his face as he read it.

_Haz,_

_Just wanted to say good luck working on the first issue!_

_Not that you’ll need it._

_I love you,_

_Boo Bear_

“Who’s it from?” Dani called out, as if they didn’t know.

“Nobody,” Harry laughed.

“Yeah, right.” Casey rolled her eyes from her desk.

Harry didn’t say anything else. He just picked up the bouquet, an assortment of roses and lilies, and carried them back to his office.

He shut the door behind him and took out his phone, hoping Louis could answer.

“ _South Jersey Daily;_ Louis Tomlinson speaking.”

“I love you so much,” Harry gushed into the phone.

“So you got the flowers, then?”

“I did. And they’re beautiful. And I’m hanging up your card on my wall, right next to the message you wrote after graduation.”

“I’m glad you liked them.”

“No, I love them. You didn’t have to do that, though. They were probably expensive.”

“Don’t worry about it. I wanted to. That way, you don’t forget about me.”

“I could never forget about you,” Harry assured.

“OK. Um- Shit, there’s someone calling on the other line. I’ll talk to you later?”

“OK. I love you.”

“Love you, too. Bye.”

Harry hung up the phone and opened his door again, just in case any editors needed more pictures done.

He’d just started working on the ones for Sports when he heard another knock at his door.

He turned to see Tyler standing there.

“What’s up, Tyler?” he asked nicely.

“Hey, just need you to fix this photo for me?”

“Got it." 

As he read over the specifics for it, he noticed that Tyler hadn’t left yet.

He looked up to find the younger editor reading the notes on his wall from Louis.

Harry cleared his throat, getting his attention.

“So you and Louis are still going strong, then?” Tyler wondered curiously.

“Yup. Sure are.”

“Cool.”

Tyler smiled down at him before glancing over at his desk.

“Nice flowers,” he commented as he walked out of the office.

“Thanks,” Harry said quietly.

Once Tyler was gone, Harry remembered last year at the final meeting, when Tyler had winked at him.

At the time, Harry wasn’t a hundred percent sure why Tyler did that. But now, he had a pretty good idea of why; and he didn’t particularly like it one bit. God willing, that wouldn’t become a problem. This year would be tough enough as it was. He'd had plenty of relationship drama last year. He didn't need any more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up Wednesday night! So sorry for the delay!


	3. Reunion Weekend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference, I put the editors list at the start of Chapter 1, in case you ever forget, or have forgotten, who some of the new editors are!
> 
> Also, I'm **VERY** sorry for taking more than a week with the new chapter. Trust me, I hate that more than you guys do. The reason it took so long is because I took the whole weekend to edit this one shot that I've been working on FOREVER and I think it's officially done. I'm gonna look it over again this weekend to make sure I don't want to change anything, and then it'll probably be posted next week!  
>  Hope you guys read/like it!
> 
>  **PLUS** Thank You for getting this story past 400 hits already! It took MM 7 chapters to get that far, so I'm just so happy with how far this series has come! =)
> 
> OK. Now go ahead and read Ch. 3!

Harry sighed as he read the email containing yet another syllabus for the semester.

This one was for his Understanding Literature class. Harry had signed up for the course to fill his Literature requirement for his major, and had sincerely hoped that it would be easy enough to follow along with.

He was overloading this semester, meaning he was taking six classes as opposed to regular students who were only taking five.

He had mentally prepared himself as best as he could for the upcoming extra stress, but now that he was totally moved in and the mini issue was completed, his readiness was officially out the window.

 _Students will read one assigned chapter each week, and on Monday of the following week, will contribute to the professor-created discussion on the class forum,_ Harry read.

Below was the link where the class forum would be.

_On Wednesday, in class, the discussion will be further broken down and any questions about the material will be answered._

Harry was confused. Did that mean that Harry and his classmates would be reading a chapter a week and discussing it amongst themselves, essentially teaching each other the material?

He reread the sentences, and came to the conclusion that unless the professor was involved in the discussion, then yes, the students would be informing each other what was in the book and what it all meant.

He seriously hoped he was mistaken. 

_Monday class sessions will be used for tests and quizzes, as well as analyzing works of literature in small groups and as a class._

“What the fuck am I paying to take this class for?” Harry grumbled to himself.

He closed the email and locked his phone.

With a quick glance out the window, he saw that Niall still wasn’t done shopping yet.

They had driven over to the liquor store after they exported the mini issue so that they could get drinks for tonight.

The entire staff would be in attendance: all twelve of them.

He and Niall had enough drinks for the two of them, but nothing to really prepare for a party, even though the older editors would be bringing stuff, as well.

Since they were in a prime college area, the liquor store carded everybody who walked through the door. And because Harry wasn’t 21 yet, he couldn’t go inside with his roommate. So, he sat in the car, reading emails from his professors and getting annoyed about the school year before it even officially started.

Just wonderful.

He propped his feet up on the dash and fiddled with the radio, even though he knew it would piss Niall off when he returned.

Niall hated when anybody messed with the music in his car. He especially hated if anybody tried to play something other than the Top 40 music that was on constant repeat from the same three stations.

Harry found something that suited him, and he lounged back in his seat as The 1975 began serenading him.

Just as he started drifting to sleep, the door suddenly opened, giving Harry a jolt.

“Get your feet off my dashboard,” Niall ordered, placing a few six-packs and a brown paper bag in the backseat.

Harry reluctantly put his feet on the floor and buckled his seatbelt up again.

As Niall sat down in the driver’s seat, he immediately stiffened.

“You messed with my radio,” he accused.

“You were in there forever,” Harry whined.

“Well, sorry. I couldn’t find your precious Malibu. It wasn’t with the other rums.”

“Did you get it, though?”

“Yes, relax.” Niall rolled his eyes as he fixed the station. “It was up front. I must’ve walked right by it. It’s on special this weekend, so the bottles were all in a fancy display.”

“OK. Thank you.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome, Jailbait.”

“That doesn't really fit in that sentence." 

“I can tweak the definition a little bit.” Niall shrugged as they pulled out of the parking lot. “I mean, you are under the legal age to be drinking, so…”

“So you told younger editors to bring snacks?” Harry quickly asked, in an attempt to change the subject.

“Yeah, and older editors to bring alcohol,” Niall said, checking over his shoulder so he could switch lanes. “We’ll have enough for everybody then, right?”

“God I hope so,” Harry replied. “I mean, we shouldn’t get drunk tonight. I believe you said that, actually.”

“No, I said we couldn’t be hung over tomorrow. I can totally get drunk.”

“Niall!” Harry scolded.

“What? You know my tolerance is infinitely better than yours. You’re a total lightweight.”

“I am not.”

“Um, I remember last year you had to spend the night at our apartment after the party because you had one extra beer, and the guys didn’t trust you to walk back to your dorm.”

Harry pouted at Niall’s excellent memory. “Doesn’t mean I’m a lightweight,” he muttered under his breath.

“Harry, there’s no shame in it. It makes you more adorable, honestly; like that’s even possible.”

They soon pulled into their parking lot on campus and started unloading the car.

“Here, I’ll carry everything,” Niall offered. “Just get the door for me.”

Harry nodded, swiping his ID to let them in the building. 

“What time are they getting here?” Harry wondered as they got in the elevator. Niall didn’t trust himself to successfully carry everything up the stairs.

“I think I said nine, but I don’t remember.”

“That sounds good, if you did. I’ll call for pizza around 8:30.”

“Cool,” Niall nodded. They walked inside the apartment and put the drinks in the fridge. “I’m gonna take a nap. Wake me at 8?”

“Got it.”

Niall retreated to his room and Harry checked the time. It was almost 5:30. Louis should be home by now.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called his boyfriend, walking into his own room.

“Hey, babe,” Louis answered. “I was just thinking about you.”

“Good things, I hope.”

“Not really. Just wondering what time I should leave in the morning.”

“That’s why I was calling, actually,” Harry said, jumping up onto his bed.

“Wow, that’s creepy.”

“Just a little bit. But, um, if you want to get here at like, eleven? The place should be cleaned up by then.”

“Babe, it’s me. You don’t have to have anything cleaned up just for me.”

“It’s not for you. Conceited. I just want the place to look as put together as possible.”

“All right, if you say so.”

“Plus, everybody should be out by then.”

“Who’s staying over?” Louis wondered.

“I don’t know. But we have a bunch of underage editors this year. We might not take the risk, you know?”

“Like last year?”

“Exactly,” Harry confirmed. “It’s just a precaution. Maybe I’ll make Cher stay over so you can see her early.”

“Yay! How’s my replacement doing?”

“She’s awesome. But you already knew that.”

“Did she finish first yesterday?”

“You already know the answer to that,” Harry laughed.

“Yes! I taught her well.”

“You did. Still wish you were here, though.”

“Trust me, baby, so do I. My office is nowhere near as much fun as ours was.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry apologized.

“Don’t be. It’s just… an adjustment. Right?”

“Right. And don’t worry. Once Nick gets over whatever his beef is, he’ll love you, and you’ll be everybody’s favorite again.”

“Kind of biased coming from you, isn’t it?” Louis wondered.

“Maybe. Oh well.”

Louis laughed. “All right, well I love you. Go get ready for your party.”

“OK. I love you, too. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Counting down the minutes.”

“You didn’t pack at all, did you?”

“Nope. Not one single thing.”

“Big surprise.”

\---

Harry could definitely consider this party a success.

He was tipsy, along with most other people in the room.

Niall was Niall, loud and obnoxious and, despite having more drinks than Harry, probably the soberest one there, besides Hurley. Harry couldn’t remember seeing the News editor have any other drinks besides the beer he was currently sipping.

Tyler and KJ had arrived together and asked to set up the beer pong table KJ had from home. El and Dani drove over from their apartment carrying plenty of juice and rum.

The rest of the editors – Cher, Casey, Leigh-Anne, Jade and Jesy - had come straggling in at their own pace.

It was nearing midnight now, and Casey had innocently asked Niall how he and Josh had gotten together.

“So yeah, we hooked up and briefly dated during my sophomore year,” Niall was saying.

Harry took a sip of his freshly made drink and rested his head against Cher’s shoulder.

“And it sucked, pretty much,” Niall admitted openly. “I was pretty sure I was in love with him, and then he turned around and said he wanted to be friends, and he wasn't ready for a relationship. I hated it. But we did stay friends, and I’m glad we did, because he really was and is one of my best friends. Our schedules weren’t that bad over the summer, so we hung out a few times.”

“'Hung out’ or ‘ _hung_ _out_ ’?"Jesy asked with a wink.

“Hung out,” Niall answered over the laughter of everybody else. “I swear. Like, played video games and ate Taco Bell and shit like that. Totally platonic at the time.”

“And then?” Casey prompted.

“And then, after the meeting over the summer, we went out for pizza, because we were starving. And the conversation got slowly flirtier and more touchy and um… One thing led to another, and…”

“And?” Hurley asked.

Niall grinned. “And, we wound up having sex in the back of his car.” 

Harry giggled to himself while everyone else gasped in surprise. He’d heard this story before, so it was nothing new to him.

“Didn’t know you had it in you, Ni,” Casey admired.

“Well I did. And I like it there.”

The group stilled for half a second before they understood.

“You’re a bottom?” Tyler asked, genuinely curious.

“Eh, most of the time.” Niall shrugged. “Sometimes we’ll switch.”

“How did we get on this topic?” Jade wondered.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Dani agreed.

“Listen, Casey asked me a question, and I wanted to answer it.” Niall threw his hands up. “Sorry if it took a strange turn.”

“It’s OK, Niall,” El said.

“Anyway, to finish up, after that, we decided that we didn’t want to do that – the whole friends with benefits thing, I mean. Josh said that he knew how much he hurt me before, when he broke up with me, and he didn’t want to do that again. He promised that he was ready for a relationship, because he realized how much he missed me and wanted to be with me.”

“Aww,” cooed the girls in the room.

“And we’ve been officially together since September 8th. Almost a year now.”

“Not a bad story, Niall,” Leigh-Anne complimented.

“Thank you. And hey, I guess it just goes to show how magical the summer meeting can be for hook ups turning into relationships.”

“What?” KJ asked.

“You know, me and Josh, and then Harry and Louis.”

Harry’s eyes shot up at that.

The new editors all turned to look at him, apparently eager to hear this story.

“Really, Niall?” Harry fixed his roommate with an annoyed stare.

“Sorry,” he apologized.

“So what’s your story?” Hurley wondered.

“It’s nothing, really,” Harry shook his head.

“Nah, come on,” Tyler encouraged. “We want to hear it.”

Harry sighed and took a sip of his drink. “All right, if you really want to hear it. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows like Niall’s was.”

“Yeah, but you guys are good now, right?” Casey asked.

“Yeah, definitely; it just took a while to get there. I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible,” Harry finally started. “So, after the summer meeting last year, Louis and I kissed.”

“Just kissed, huh?” Niall waggled his eyebrows from his seat.

“OK, fine, it was a quick make out session. And Niall, let me tell this story.”

His roommate pretended to zip his lips shut, and Harry continued.

“Then, Louis said that we couldn’t, because we worked together, and it wouldn’t work out. So I agreed, and I went home. I was talking to this guy that I knew in high school named Aiden. Since nothing was going to happen with Louis, I started dating Aiden.”

Harry took another sip of his drink before speaking again.

“And Louis was actually pretty good at hiding how much he hated it. Like, I never got the impression that he was unhappy with the situation.”

“Well yeah, because it was his fault,” Tyler commented.

Harry shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe. But it all worked out in the end, so… Anyway, then he apologized for blowing me off after we hooked up in the office, and we became friends. Like, for real. Then, Aiden showed up on campus, because his parents told them they were getting divorced, and he freaked out. So everybody met Aiden, and-,”

Harry paused, realizing that he couldn’t tell the full story without including Jake in it, as well.

He took another deep breath.

“And also, everybody met my roommate Jake, because he came back with us to the apartment to play FIFA, because that’s what we were all doing that night. Then, bam! I’m with Aiden, and now Louis’ hooking up with Jake because they really hit it off that night. It was all good for a while. We were real friends. I even made him dinner once, and I wrote him an article for the sixteen-page issue. But then, we got into this huge argument right before winter break.”

“What was the argument about?” Casey asked.

“Um…” Harry stalled.

“Harry walked in on Louis and Jake post-sex,” Niall announced.

“Niall!” Harry scolded over the gasps of everyone else in the room.

“Sorry.”

“I never knew that part of the story,” Eleanor commented.

“Yeah, well I don’t really go around broadcasting it,” Harry replied. “Anyway…”

“But you’re actually dating Louis?” Tyler wondered. “After walking in on him with your roommate?”

“Hey, back the fuck off their relationship,” Niall warned.

“And you don’t know shit about Louis, either,” Cher added.

Harry wasn’t really surprised at Cher jumping in to defend Louis. After all, Louis had trained her and had been her editor last year and the year before. The bond between an editor and his or her successor was a special one. Harry hoped to have one like it next year when he picked someone to replace _him._

“So, over winter break, Niall, Zayn and Liam got me and Louis to go to New York with them,” Harry kept going, “but we didn’t know the other was going. By the end of the trip, we had apologized for our stupidity and were friends again.”

“Just like that?” KJ asked.

“Yeah, just like that. We realized we’d rather have the other in our lives as just friends than as nothing at all. Um, so then we came back to campus, and, remember that stomach virus that was going around?”

The room groaned at the memory.

“My s- Um, my sister got it from school,” Hurley commented. “It was nasty.”

He and Leigh-Anne exchanged a quick glance. Leigh gave him a small smile.

“We went through so many bottles of sanitizer in the office that week,” Dani recalled.

“Thankfully, none of us got sick,” Jade added. “I don’t know what Higgins and Teasdale would’ve done if we were down an editor.”

“Yeah, it was gross,” Harry grimaced. “Jake got it, so I bolted out of the room. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been photos in the issue that week. I stayed over at Louis and Niall’s apartment for the weekend, and I went back to my dorm after Jake was healthy again. But while I was there, Louis and I kissed again.”

“Now we’re getting to the good stuff,” Casey smiled.

“And we decided that we wanted to be together. Like, for real. We just had to figure out how to tell Aiden and Jake.”

“How did you?” KJ asked.

“This is where I know the story from,” Eleanor whispered to Dani.

“Me, too.” Dani agreed.

“Well, we sort of didn’t,” Harry responded. “Um, they walked in on us making out in my dorm room.”

“What?” the new editors exclaimed.

“On Valentine’s Day.”

They gasped again.

Tyler smirked. “Wow; wouldn’t have seen that coming from you.”

“So, Aiden broke up with me, and Jake and Louis ended what they had going on. But then we got into another fight because I went home for the weekend and didn’t tell Louis, so he thought I abandoned him and didn’t want this as much as he did. I did, but I was just scared and felt so guilty over everything that happened. And it was just a whole mess.”

“And then what happened?” Cher asked.

“Then, on March 4, after almost two weeks, I got my shit together, got the whole staff to help me win him back, asked him to be my boyfriend, and almost six months later, we’re still together.”

“Well that was a roller coaster,” Casey sighed.

Cher shook her head. “I can’t believe I missed all that.” 

“Be glad you missed all that,” Niall shot them down. “It was hard being around them that whole time. Louis was always pouting and looking like someone just ran over his dog. Harry was always looking over at Louis like he was the freaking sun. They were a train wreck.”

“Thanks, Niall,” Harry grumbled.

“But I am glad that they got their heads out of their asses and admitted to what was right in front of them. It only took them the whole year.”

“Again, thank you, Niall.”

“You’re welcome, Roomie.”

\---

Louis knew he was early. He honestly didn’t plan on it, but he just had to get out of his house before he got sick.

First, he woke up before his alarm because he could hear his mom getting sick in the bathroom.

Second, he was eating breakfast with his family when his mom ran to the bathroom to get sick _again_ , and needless to say, he lost his appetite.

Third, he didn’t want to catch whatever bug she had, so he threw his stuff in the car and drove up to campus.

He knew Harry would probably either still be sleeping or be running around like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to clean up after the party last night.

But Louis just wanted to see his boy. Hell, he might even offer to help clean up.

He got out of his car and called Harry again, needing him to answer the phone so he or someone else could let him in.

Fortunately for him, El and Dani were just coming down the stairs as he called again.

They saw him, and let him inside the building.

“Hi,” he greeted them, giving them both hugs. “Didn’t know you spent the night.”

“Yeah, we really didn’t feel like driving home.” Dani shrugged. “So Harry said we could have the futon, and really, how could we pass that up?”

El nodded, barely stifling her yawn.

“You two coming out with us for laser tag?” he asked.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” El answered sleepily.

“Cool.”

“Harry said we’re meeting over there at 2?” Dani attempted to confirm.

“I guess.” Louis shrugged. “He did all the planning. I’m just here.”

“That’s about right. All right, then we’re gonna go get showers and attempt to look decent. We’ll see you over there?”

“Yeah. See you over there.”

He held the door open for them so they could exit the building before going up the stairs himself.

He found their apartment – 213 – easily enough and knocked on the door.

After a minute, no one had opened it yet, so he knocked again.

Imagine his surprise when Tyler finally answered. Shirtless.

“Hey, Louis,” Tyler said with a smirk, leaning against the door.

“Didn’t know you stayed over, too.” Louis wrinkled his nose in disgust. He looked past the younger editor and saw Cher and KJ still passed out. Cher was on the couch and KJ had made some kind of mattress with a bunch of blankets.

Louis assumed Tyler slept on the floor, too.

Good.

“Niall made me. Believe me, I didn’t really want to since I knew you were coming.”

“Glad to see we’re not playing nice any more, then.”

“I don’t think we were ever playing nice, but whatever we were before is over now that I know that you’ve been with two guys living in this apartment?”

“Excuse me?” Louis gaped.

“You heard me. You slept with Harry’s roommate last year. Jake, right? That wouldn’t happen to be the same Jake whose room is right next to Harry’s over there, would it?”

Louis looked to where Tyler was pointing: at the two wooden doors to the right of them. One had a ‘Harry’ Post-It on it, and the other had a ‘Jake’ Post-It.

“It is, isn’t it?” Tyler smirked.

“So what if it is?”

“I’m impressed, is all. Keeping your options open, I guess?”

Louis’ head snapped to attention. As much as he wanted to knock Tyler on his ass and beat the living shit out of him, he knew that was the exact reaction he wanted.

Plus, Harry would be pissed at him for fighting.

“You know,” Louis forced out, “if you’re trying to win Harry over or steal him from me or something, just a word of advice. He doesn’t like mind games and whatever kind of shit you’re playing right now.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, oh. You trying to stir up jealousy like you’re probably going to try to do isn’t going to work. He’s not a jealous person.”

“But you are.”

“You don’t know shit about me.”

“I think I do. I mean, considering you’re gripping the strap of your bag so hard right now that it’s turning your knuckles white, I’d say you’re angry. And definitely jealous of the fact that I get to hang out with Harry all the time, and you don’t.”

“You fucking -“

“Watch it now,” Tyler held up a hand to hold Louis back as he took a step forward. “Harry strikes me as the kind of guy who doesn’t like violence, so maybe you shouldn’t do that.”

“Keep this up and Harry won’t be the one striking you,” Louis threatened.

Tyler raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

Louis pushed past him with a huff and opened the door to Harry’s room.

He saw that his boyfriend was still sleeping, and gently shut the door behind him.

He dropped his bag on the floor and kicked off his sneakers.

With a glance to Harry’s desk, Louis saw the bouquet that he’d sent on Thursday.

It did little to alleviate Louis’ stress.

Not wanting to wake up the younger man just yet, Louis crawled under the covers. He wrapped an arm around Harry’s waist and pulled him close, which was an easy task considering how small the bed was to begin with.

He buried his face in the crook of Harry’s neck and breathed in his scent.

He focused on breathing evenly, and not on going back to the living room and bashing Tyler’s face in.

\---

“This is a good alternative to Wal-Mart tag,” Liam commented as he adjusted his vest.

The group of them was gathered at Empire Entertainment, the new bowling alley/arcade/laser tag center that had opened nearly two months ago.

It was less than twenty minutes from campus, so Liam suggested it as a place for everybody to meet up that day.

Louis looked around at the group that had assembled. It was a regular _Taylor Times_ reunion.

Besides him and Liam, Josh, Perrie and Zayn were the other graduates in attendance. From the current staff were Harry, Niall, Dani, Eleanor, Casey, Cher, KJ and - unfortunately - Tyler.

They rented out the arena for their group to battle it out together.

“Yeah; we won’t get kicked out by any night managers,” Zayn grinned. “We’re actually _supposed_ to shoot each other here.”

“I wonder how Harvey’s doing, anyway?” Niall thought out loud.

“No idea.” Liam shook his head. “Haven’t been by there since that night. It’s probably for the best.”

“I am curious, though,” Harry started. “Like, did Harvey ever do anything about that? Like, tell employees to keep an eye out for us?”

The five of them were standing in a loose circle, getting themselves ready for their turn.

“I hope so,” Louis said. “That would be great if we made that big of an impression on him.”

“Poor Harvey.” Zayn shook his head. “I can just imagine him putting up ‘Wanted’ signs with our faces on them.”

“He’s probably lost sleep over us and everything,” Niall commented.

“Those kids,” Harry mocked, “water everywhere. They kept laughing; nothing was funny.”

The five of them laughed together, only to be cut off by an instructor approaching them all.

“Can I have your attention, please?” he called out.

The thirteen of them turned to look at him to listen to any directions he had for them.

“You have ten minutes in the arena,” the instructor informed the group. “You’ll have sixty seconds after you enter to get into position. Any shots made during that time won’t count. Use the time to hide, form a strategy with your team or whatever else. After those sixty seconds, a buzzer will go off, and the game will begin. It’s up to you whether or not you want to do teams, groups or every man for himself.”

Louis smirked at the four boys standing with him.

The five of them had already determined that they would all band together and work against the rest of the group.

They just hadn’t told anyone else that.

“There will be no physical contact inside the arena,” the instructor continued. “You are to use only your laser rifles to hit your opponents. Each circle on your vest, arm bands or leg bands-“ he pointed to the back equipment they were all currently wearing, “-counts for a different number of points. The chest and back count for the most. Whichever player has the most points at the end of your ten minutes will be the winner. Has everyone signed their waiver form?”

Everybody nodded.

“Good. You have about five minutes left until the group in front of you is done. We’ll come get you when we’re ready for you. Good luck.”

They thanked him, and the instructor went to check on the room.

“This is heavy,” Zayn commented, shrugging his shoulders a few times.

“It is,” Perrie agreed, walking over. “At least it’ll be a muscle work out.”

“Has anybody ever been here before?” Casey wondered.

They all shook their heads.

“I didn’t even know about this place until you guys suggested we come here,” Cher stated.

“It’s in a good spot, though,” KJ said. “Could make for a good Editors’ Night Out every now and then after a stressful week.”

“I’d be down for that.” Dani nodded.

“I mean, we could also just drink.” Niall shrugged.

No one could exactly disagree with that idea, either.

Less than ten minutes later, the editors were in front of the door to the arena.

Louis, Harry, Zayn, Niall and Liam tightened their grips on their laser guns and started walking inside, keeping their eyes on each other.

“You have sixty seconds to get ready,” their instructor reminded them. “After the buzzer, your guns will activate and you may begin. Happy tagging.”

As he finished, the door started to slide shut behind them.

And then the five of them were off running, hurrying to find out what kind of design the arena had.

“Niall, it’s so on!” Josh threatened from near the entrance.

As the five of them moved as one collective unit, the regular lights went down and glow-in-the-dark lights came on.

Everywhere they looked, there were bright patches of neon pink and orange adorning the walls.

Splashes of yellow and green were across the floor, lighting up the pathways that they could use.

Harry looked to his left and saw a small wall of mirrors. That could come in handy.

“This way,” Zayn whispered over to them.

They followed him up a few steps so that they had a bit of a vantage point over the floor. It was only a foot or two, but it still gave them a broader range to look over.

They knelt down behind the half wall that blocked them in.

“All right, remember,” Louis prompted, “stay low and move quick. We’re ready for this. Too many games of tag have prepared us.”

“We can’t stay here for too long,” Liam continued, “but this will give us a good advantage in scoring points.”

“Why do I feel like we’re going to war?” Harry asked.

He peeked over the wall and saw someone moving along the far back.

“Because we kind of are,” Niall replied.

A few seconds later, the buzzer went off, officially starting the game.

The five boys stilled, feeling their hearts start to race with adrenaline as they looked out for their opponents.

For a solid thirty seconds, they posed with their guns ready to fire.

They didn’t see anything, and Niall felt himself starting to get anxious at the lack of activity.

Suddenly, he saw a flash of blonde out of the corner of his eye.

Casey. 

“I’ll be right back,” he told his friends.

“You want backup?” Zayn asked.

“Nah. It’s just Casey. It’ll only take a second.”

He peeked around the wall to make sure there was nobody waiting for him.

Seeing no one, he followed Casey, still in his crouching position.

He soon found her kneeling near a wall, looking around the corner for somebody.

He made his way over to her and as he aimed, he heard someone running toward him.

“Ambush!” he yelled out in warning as Josh charged right at him.

He started shooting at his boyfriend, landing a shot at his chest before feeling a buzzing on his back, knowing he’d been hit there.

He looked to see Casey aiming at him again with a grin on her face.

He glanced over at Josh to see a similar expression. 

He came to the realization that he’d been double-teamed by his boyfriend and current co-editor.

It stung a little bit, to be honest.

Thinking quick, he pointed his gun toward Josh while backing away speedily toward the opening leading back to his friends.

He got a final shot off toward Casey, too, hitting her on the target on her armband before getting almost away from them.

“Jerk,” he hissed toward Josh.

“You love me,” he replied.

Niall shrugged before shuffling over and kissing Josh. “I guess.”

Casey took the chance to shoot Niall in the chest again.

“Stop,” he whined, shooting her back.

With a pout, he went back to find his friends. But they weren’t where he left them.

Instead, he saw Zayn and Liam waiting by a wall near the middle of the room.

He watched as Liam counted off, and then the two of them jumped out from where they were hiding, stood back to back, and started firing. Niall rushed over to them to try and help, before noticing that they had it under control.

Zayn had Perrie and Tyler ducking, trying to avoid getting shot, while Liam had cornered Dani and El.

The two girls groaned in frustration and ran away, giving Liam a clear shot of their backs.

He let out a quick laugh as he ran off after them.

"Let me get a shot at her!" Zayn urged, trying to aim for Perrie. 

"Nope!" Tyler denied, jumping in front of Perrie to block her from Zayn. 

Zayn just shrugged and started shooting at Tyler, who didn't hesitate to take some shots right back. 

At the same time, Perrie was reaching past Tyler to shoot at Zayn. 

"Back me up!" Zayn shouted to Niall. 

The blonde walked around the corner and took a shot at Perrie, who wasn't expecting it. 

"Hey!" she complained. She then pointed her gun at Niall, and the four of them were in a regular shootout. 

Meanwhile, across the room, Harry, Louis and Cher were in a stare down.

Cher had her gun up, switching quickly between Louis and Harry, who were standing next to each other. She didn't know who to try to hit first. 

Louis smirked to himself, knowing that the two of them were about to get Cher and earn a bunch of points for themselves.

But then, Harry was backing away from him, and aiming his gun toward him.

“Oh, come on!” Louis complained. He started shooting at the both of them before ducking down near the wall.

“I love you?” Harry offered as an apology before hitting Louis in the leg.

With a roll of his eyes, Louis turned and ran behind the wall running along the side of the room.

"Come on, Louis!" Harry jokingly taunted. "Let's make this easy." 

Louis ran the length of the wall he was behind and came out on the other side, right near Harry. With his element of surprise, he – gently – tackled him to the ground.

Cher started laughing and started tagging them both, racking up her own points.

“You’re a terrible teammate,” Louis jokingly scolded.

He got up, and before he could react, KJ came out of nowhere and opened fire on all three of them.

They shouted and shielded their faces as if protecting themselves from actual bullets. Then they remembered that it was just laser tag.

They started firing back, and then KJ looked over his shoulder and ran off.

“Get him!” Zayn and Liam yelled, coming their way. "Which way did he go?"

Harry shrugged at Louis, and the two of them aimed their guns at their Louis' roommates, taking them both by surprise.

Harry and Louis took steps back, keeping their guns held high.

As Liam and Zayn did the same, they all started feeling buzzing on their chests and back.

They looked around to see Niall perched in their original hiding spot, with clear shots on all of them.

“Oh, I’m staying out of your way,” Cher held her hands up in surrender and went off to find someone else.

“Let’s get the leprechaun,” Louis said in determination.

All too soon, the lights were coming back on, and their laser guns and vests were deactivated.

“We have to do that again,” Harry decided as they returned their equipment.

“Just let me know, and I’ll be here,” Zayn commented.

“Who was the winner, anyway?” Eleanor wondered.

“Definitely not us,” Dani shook her head.

The group of them loudly made their way to the scoreboard to see who had the most points.

“And the winner is…” Louis rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

The scores were loaded, and they all were left a little shocked.

“KJ?” Tyler read out loud.

“It’s my flawless strategy,” KJ shrugged. “No big deal.”

“You have 300 points more than Louis, who came in second,” Josh observed.

“How did you do that?” Niall wondered.

“Never gonna tell,” KJ answered. “That’s why it works. It’s a secret.”

“I need to learn that strategy,” Louis muttered. “Rematch?”

He looked over at KJ, who grinned.

“Absolutely.”

The two of them shook on it.

“Now that we’ve decided on that,” Liam started, “can we get food now?”

“Please!” Perrie exclaimed. “I’m starving.”

“How’s Misso’s for a bunch of broke college kids and graduates?” Harry proposed.

He got a cheer from his friends as confirmation. 

\---

“Shh, you have to be quiet,” Harry giggled.

“How can I be quiet when I have you naked and wet right in front of me?” Louis smiled.

The two of them were crammed into the small shower in Harry’s apartment on Sunday morning. Harry made Louis promise that they could shower together only if Louis didn’t wake up Niall and Josh, who were still asleep in Niall’s room.

It wasn’t working so far.

“You’re not even trying.” Harry rolled his eyes.

He still leaned in and kissed his boyfriend.

“I am, too,” Louis mumbled against Harry’s lips before kissing him again.

Harry shook his head. “Are not.” 

“I am trying,” Louis spoke lowly, crowding Harry back against the wall.

“Liar.”

“You be quiet.”

“I’m actually pretty quiet right now,” Harry said in a near whisper.

“Yeah? How about now?”

Louis sunk to his knees and took Harry’s cock in his hands.

“Cheater.”

“Come on,” Louis smirked. “You really didn’t see this coming?”

“Louis, come on,” Harry begged. “We’re gonna wake up Niall and Josh.”

“I’ve lived with Niall,” Louis said before slowly licking up the underside of Harry’s dick. “And the boy could sleep through a tornado ripping the building apart.”

He took Harry into his mouth and pulled back just as slowly, letting his lips stretch right across the delicate pink skin.

“And if Josh gets mad, it’ll only be because he didn’t have the idea to do this first.”

He wrapped his hand around Harry's cock and stroked him until he was fully hard. 

Once that happened, Harry focused on keeping his breathing steady as he watched Louis wrap his perfect lips around Harry and sink back down.

He bobbed up and down, keeping his gaze focused on Harry’s face.

Harry reached down, twisting the fingers of one hand into Louis’ hair. His other hand was pressed against the wall next to him to keep his balance.

Louis continued working him over, swirling his tongue around Harry’s cock the way that he liked it done to himself.

“Louis,” he moaned quietly.

Louis hummed around him, sending vibrations through Harry’s body.

Harry licked his lips before pulling the bottom one between his teeth.

He looked down at Louis, who still had his eyes fixed on Harry.

The older man took his hands and grabbed onto the back of Harry’s thighs before pulling all the way off.

“Fuck my face,” he demanded.

“It’s going to be over embarrassingly quickly if I do,” Harry promised.

Louis just shrugged. He relaxed his jaw and slipped Harry’s cock between his lips once more. He squeezed Harry’s legs to let him know he was ready.

Harry took hold of Louis’ head with both hands and started slowly thrusting forward.

He concentrated on not choking his boyfriend, though he knew that wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.

Louis’ eyes flickered like he was trying to keep them open. He could feel Harry’s heavy cock pulsating as it dragged back and forth over his tongue. And he loved it.

He tilted his head slightly to the right, like he was challenging Harry to go faster.

Harry immediately picked up on that, and moved quicker, leading Louis to seemingly smile around his dick.

He could hear himself breathing heavier as he slid in and out of Louis’ mouth while the older man remained still, holding on to Harry’s legs so he wouldn’t fall over.

“Close,” Harry forced out.

Louis just winked in response before moving one hand down and taking his own cock into his hand.

Harry’s rhythm was thrown immediately off at the sight of Louis jerking himself off to the simple action of Harry’s cock gliding across his tongue.

He threw one hand out to the wall in front of him to keep him steady as he kept fucking Louis’ mouth.

Much too soon for Harry's liking, he felt himself coming. Letting out a small whimper, his grip in Louis’ hair tightened as he spilled down Louis’ throat.

He let go of Louis once he was done so Louis could pull off. While he came down, he heard Louis finish himself off, and the unmistakable moan of Louis coming soon followed.

Harry slid down the wall and sat next to Louis.

The two of them shared a brief glance before pressing their lips together.

“I love you,” Harry said.

“I love you, too.”

“We should probably actually shower for real now, though.”

Instead of saying anything, Louis turned his head and said, “You’re letting water out.”

Harry realized that due to their lack of space, his leg was pushing the shower curtain open, sending a lot of water onto the bathroom floor.

“Shit,” he swore, retracting his leg. “I’ll mop it up when we’re done. Good thing we have our own washer and dryer.”

“Very good, indeed.”

They shared one more kiss before rising to their feet and quickly washing the other.

Once they were done, Harry turned the water off and they stepped out, wrapping towels around their waists.

“Can you grab some towels from my room?” Harry asked. He started picking up their now wet pajamas from where they lay on the floor and rang them out over the shower drain.

Louis nodded and hurried down to Harry’s room.

He went into the dresser and pulled out all the extra towels from the top shelf.

As he rushed back, he tripped over a suitcase that was lying on the floor, dropping all of the towels.

“What the hell?”

He glared down at the offending object, confused at its sudden appearance.

It hadn’t been there when he and Harry had gone to the shower.

Shaking his head, he went to pick up the towels.

So of course, when he was there, bent over, ass up, the door opened.

He looked around to see Jake in the doorway, eyes wide.

“Hey, man,” Louis greeted, standing back up.

“Hide,” Jake whispered.

“What?”

Suddenly, two other people were coming up behind Jake.

Louis realized too late that they were his parents.

“Hi!” he greeted a little too loudly as he stood up straight.

The two of them looked at him in confusion.

Jake had his lips pressed together, holding in a laugh.

“I’m Louis,” he introduced slowly.

“Hi, I’m Molly, Jake’s mom,” she said happily. She held a hand out for Louis to shake. “And this is my husband Rob, Jake’s dad.”

“Nice to meet you.” Rob shook Louis’ hand, too. “Are you Jake’s other roommate?”

“No… Um, I’m-“

“Babe, where are those towels? Come on, I want to clean up the water.”

Of fucking course Harry picked that moment to come out of the bathroom.

“Who are you talking to?”

He turned to see Jake standing there with his parents.

“Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds! Hi!” he exclaimed.

Jake’s shoulders were shaking slightly now, as he was just dying to burst out in laughter at the situation.

“Hi, Harry; how are you, sweetie?” Molly asked kindly.

“Good,” he answered, subtly trying to cross his arms across his naked torso.

“Were you two… In the shower together?” Molly asked, taking in their similar appearances.

“No!” they denied in unison.

“No, we weren’t.” Harry shook his head.

“So why are you both in towels? With wet hair?” Rob smirked.

“Well, that’s a simple explanation, really,” Louis said.

Jake closed his eyes, blinking away the tears that he was crying from how hard he was quietly laughing.

“Um…” Harry started.

Just then, the door behind them opened loudly, and Niall walked out.

“Morning,” he rasped. “Hey, Jake.”

“Hey, Niall,” Jake laughed.

“That’s our other roommate, by the way,” Harry stalled. “Niall.”

“Oh! Why’s there fucking water everywhere?” Niall yelled from the bathroom.

Louis and Harry exchanged a worried glance.

Niall came storming out. “Did you guys have a water fight or something?”

“Yes!” they shouted at the same time.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened.” Louis nodded. “Harry threw water at me and I threw water back.”

“And our clothes got soaking wet,” Harry continued with the lie. “So we took them off to- to…”

“Prevent water from getting all through the apartment!” Louis finished. “Yup. Sorry, Niall. Here, Harry.”

He shoved all of the towels into Harry’s arms. “I’m going to get dressed, and Harry’s going to clean up the mess for you, Niall, and then we’ll all help Jake move in. Sounds great to me, OK.”

He turned and speed-walked into Harry’s room, closing the door behind him.

Harry turned to Jake and his parents, unsurprised to see his roommate still trying not to laugh at Harry’s predicament.

“Well, you guys keep bringing up Jake’s stuff. I see those bags in your hand. They look pretty heavy.”

Molly and Rob just nodded, still looking suspicious at the whole thing.

“I’ll go clean up the bathroom.”

He backed away and walked toward the bathroom.

“Hurry up, I gotta take a piss,” Niall whispered after him.

“Charming as always, Niall.”

He got a simple grunt in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to warn you guys... Don't get used to seeing all of the editors together! These first few chapters are just to refresh your memories on the relationship between everybody if you haven't read Monday Meetings in a while! Plus, if anybody hasn't read MM at all, then these chapters are a pretty good summary of things. (I think so, anyway!)  
> In the coming chapters, expect more of a separation between: Harry, Niall and the other current editors and Louis, Zayn, Liam and the other graduates in their new lives.  
> They can't all hang out together, as much as I wish they could. (In the story, obviously!)
> 
>  **UPDATE:** I'm sorry I haven't updated in more than a week! I promise I haven't abandoned the story or anything, I've just been faced with MAJOR Writer's Block (seriously, it's only been 3 chapters, WTF) and I swear I'm trying to get past it. I'll be posting ASAP, though! Hopefully I can sit down this weekend and get my shit together. Sorry again!


	4. Start of the Semester

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel terrible right now.  
> A) Because I took two weeks to update and  
> B) because Zayn left. As of right now, I still haven't accepted the fact that he's really gone.  
> I was going to post this chapter yesterday, but once I heard the news, I didn't have any motivation to. I just stayed on tumblr all night, trying to make sense of it all (and crying because I was really emotional). But as long as Zayn's happy, and the rest of the boys are happy, then so am I. It just sucks, is all. 
> 
> Also, know that Zayn **IS NOT** going to be written out of the story just because he's gone. He will still be very much involved in it, no matter how difficult it will be to write about him.  
>  With that said, there is a part about Zayn in this chapter. If you feel like skipping it because it's just too soon, I'll understand. 
> 
> All right, that's it, before I get all sad again. =(
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

“Weirdest place you’ve ever had sex?” Harry asked on Monday night.

He was sitting around the dining table with Niall, Jake and Xander, after successfully moving the latter two into their rooms.

After Harry and Louis’ awkward run-in with Jake and his parents, the two of them had quickly cleaned up the bathroom and gotten dressed to help bring up the rest of Jake’s stuff.

As soon as his parents left an hour later, Jake was on the floor in hysterics, laughing his ass off at their poor excuse for why they had both been dripping wet and wrapped in towels.

Louis responded by refusing to help Jake unpack, and instead, planted himself on the couch to play FIFA with Josh, who had very conveniently stayed asleep until after Jake’s parents left.

Xander arrived a few hours later, and thankfully, had nothing awkward about his moving in.

The six of them all had dinner together, and the two graduates left once they were full. 

The four roommates started their bonding while Xander avoided unpacking more than his sheets and his toothbrush.

Now they were having dinner together again, eating a simple pasta recipe Harry had cooked with their limited food supply.

They’d already gotten to know the basics about each other; now it was time for the good stuff.

“We talking full penetration or…?” Jake wanted to know.

“Who the fuck says 'penetration' anymore?” Xander asked with his mouth full of food.

“Listen, I just want to know what I’m answering here. And if anything goes, then mine would be my high school pool. Harry, you already know the story, but they don’t.”

Harry nodded and took a bite of his food.

“Oh, this could be good. What happened?” Niall questioned.

“All right, so I hooked up with this dude at a party, and he was the typical ‘I’m gay, but I’m not gay because that would be stupid, and everybody would make fun of me if I came out, so I’m not going to.’”

Harry and Niall groaned at the description. They’d both had their encounters with that kind of guy before.

“Exactly.” Jake said. “So anyway, he’s on the swim team, right? And I guess he wanted to impress me or some shit, so he brought me to the pool after hours. And we’re swimming in the pool; everything’s cool. Then I decide to take a break. And I’m just leaning back, resting my head against the wall in the pool, right? I didn’t even notice him swimming toward me until I felt him pulling me out of my shorts.”

“He got you off in the pool?” Xander asked.

“Yup. Blew me right there.”

“Excuse me?” Niall stared.

“Yeah. Took a deep breath, ducked his head under the water and started sucking.”

“So he can hold his breath under water for a long time, I guess?”

“He can,” Jake nodded. “Granted, I was eighteen and very easily excitable, so it wasn’t like he had to hold his breath that long, if you catch my drift.”

The others laughed before Xander asked, “And was it good?”

“ _Very good,_ ” Jake answered. “If you’ve never gotten a blow job in a pool, I highly recommend it. Dude knew what he was doing, too.”

“And he said he wasn’t gay.” Harry shook his head.

“Right? So that’s my story. Who’s next?”

“I’ll go,” Xander volunteered. “Mine would be the dressing room of the department store where my ex-girlfriend worked.”

 _Oh, right._ Harry would have to remember that Xander was straight; and also the only straight one in their apartment.

“It wasn’t that crowded or anything, so there wasn’t a _huge_ risk of getting caught,” Xander started explaining, “but there was still a risk. Anyway, she texted me saying that the store was dead, and I should come visit, so I did. I wasn’t doing anything else.”

“When was this?” Jake asked.

“During winter break. So, in January.”

Harry nodded. “Nice.”

“So I get there, and she’s right: it’s dead. There’s like, three customers and six employees in the whole Men’s department – where she worked – so I hung by the register for a little while. Then two of the customers left and one customer was checking out cologne, so we snuck into one of the stalls. We started making out, and I had to keep telling her to be quiet, because she kept giggling. Even though, it wasn’t like _I_ was running the chance of getting fired from _my_ job, but whatever.”

Xander shrugged and continued to his story. “I got my hand down her pants for like, two seconds-“

“Gross,” Jake commented.

“Well, I’m sorry I’m the only straight one here and don’t grab on to a dick when I put my hand down someone’s pants,” Xander fake-apologized.

“It’s all right,” Harry said.

“We won’t hold it against you,” Niall added.

“Gee, thanks,” Xander deadpanned. “So, to finish up, we just said, ‘fuck it,’ and took each other’s clothes off. She backed up against the wall and when I got in front of her, she jumped up and wrapped her legs around my waist. And we start going at it. Before you ask, Jake, yes; it was full penetration.”

“Ha ha,” Jake pretended to laugh.

“And surprisingly, we didn’t get caught. I thought we would, because neither one of us was particularly quiet about it. But I guess since the department was empty, and nobody had to try on anything, we got away with it.”

“None of her coworkers said anything?” Harry asked, a little shocked.

“Well, when we got out of there, one of them gave us a look, but she didn’t say anything. I’d absolutely do it again. Any of you ever do it in public?”

“Yeah,” Harry confessed before he thought about it.

Niall and Jake’s eyebrows shot up, while Xander reached a hand over to give him a high-five.

“Why don’t I know this story?” Niall wondered.

“Don’t feel bad; I don’t know it, either.” Jake said.

“Oh, this has got to be good,” Xander smirked. “Harry, please share.”

“OK, well it’s not totally public sex, I guess,” Harry supplied. “Just like, sort of?”

“Where was it?” Niall asked.

“And when?” Jake wanted to know.

“Over the summer,” Harry confessed shyly. “In the newspaper office.”

Niall spit out the beer he’d been drinking while Jake started laughing loudly.

“Are you serious?” Jake questioned while he tried to catch his breath.

“Are you fucking kidding?” Niall asked.

“No, I’m dead serious,” Harry said. “It was after the meeting, when we came back from the restaurant-“

“When Louis had to pee?” Niall demanded.

“Yeah, then.”

“Wait! _Where did you do it?_ ”

“I don’t want to tell you.”

“Oh, my God!” Niall yelled. “Was it where I sit? Oh, I’m gonna be sick.”

“Niall-“

“I have to find a new seat! I’ve been sitting there for three years and now I have to move. All because you and your boyfriend were horny.”

Xander, who had never set foot in the office before, wasn’t bothering to stifle his laughter at Niall’s reaction.

It wasn’t bothering him any.

Jake’s laughter had lessened considerably, but he was still letting out a few chuckles as he looked between Harry and Niall.

“Niall, it wasn’t where you sit,” Harry denied.

“Where was it, then?”

“It was on the table, just not where you sit.”

“So you say.”

“Since we’re all answering this, Harry, was it full penetration?” Xander asked, throwing a smirk over at Jake, who just rolled his eyes.

“No, it wasn’t,” Harry answered. “Louis just pushed me back on the table and blew me right there. It was really good, though.”

“I’m done,” Niall grumbled, pushing his plate away from him. “Whose idea was it to play this stupid game, anyway?”

“Yours,” the other three answered simultaneously.

It was true. Harry had only asked the question after Niall had gone into detail about how he and Josh had sex on his parents’ pool table just two weeks ago.

“Oh, right,” Niall muttered. “Well whatever. Now I can never go to work without thinking of your ass all over the table. I eat my dinner there, Harry!”

“I promise it wasn’t where you sit!” Harry assured.

“Whatever.”

“You’re just mad because you and Josh didn’t do it first.”

Niall fixed him with a cold stare. “Well, obviously.”

He stood up and walked away from the table. “It’s like you don’t know me at all. Jerk.”

Harry watched his roommate walk away before turning to his other two. They only waited a moment before they burst into laughter.

\---

The next afternoon, Zayn took a deep breath before walking into the studio.

Today was the day: the day he was leading his own painting session.

At his job interview in July, he’d been hired on the spot at Painting with a Twist. He’d spent the last month training and assisting his coworkers in leading their painting parties, and tonight, he would be the teacher, leading forty paying customers through a painting while they sipped on their wine or whatever other alcoholic (or non-alcoholic) beverages they brought with them.

And he was freaking the fuck out.

“But what if I mess up?” he whispered to Perrie through the phone.

“You won’t mess up,” his girlfriend assured. “You practiced that painting about a dozen times. You even told me how to paint it and I did it just fine, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about.”

Zayn balanced his phone between his ear and his shoulder as he squeezed out the right amount of orange paint onto forty separate paper plates.

“But how will I know if I’m like, going too fast or something?”

“You’re going to have two assistants, right?” Perrie wondered.

“Well, yeah…”

“I’m sure they’ll signal you if somebody needs more time. They’ll be your eyes and ears on the floor, just like you were for them.”

It was true. In addition to Zayn leading the class, two of his coworkers would be walking through the crowd, helping anybody who had a question or seemed to need help fixing their painting.

“You’re going to be great,” Perrie insisted. “Please stop being nervous.”

“OK.”

Before he could say anything else, he heard the door opening, meaning his coworkers were there to help prep.

“I have to go; we have to finish setting up.”

“OK. I love you. Good luck.”

“I love you, too. And thanks. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and slid it into his pocket as his assistants for the evening, Sophia and Kevin, walked into the back.

“Hey, Z,” Sophia greeted while the two of them washed their hands.

“Hey, Soph. Kev. You guys ready?”

“Of course,” Kevin answered. “The question is, are _you_ ready?”

“Don’t freak him out,” Sophia scolded. “Of course you’re ready, Zayn.”

“Thanks.”

“I was just messing, Zayn,” Kevin reassured. “You’ll be great. Your painting is really good, too. Everybody will love it.”

“Thanks,” Zayn repeated. “Now start squeezing out paint; we don’t have much time before people started arriving.”

Sophia and Kevin nodded, before grabbing bottles of different colored paint to give to the people coming in.

Each customer would receive three paintbrushes and a paper plate with all of the colors they would need to complete their painting.

A blank canvas and easel to work on would be provided, as well.

It all needed to be set up before the doors opened in an hour.

Once the paint was mostly finished, Sophia went out to the main room and started propping easels and setting up canvases.

Kevin filled water glasses and placed one, and one set of paintbrushes, by each easel while Zayn laid out the plates.

They were done with ten minutes to go, and Zayn went over his instructions in his head one more time.

At 6:30, the doors opened, and little by little, customers started trailing in.

A few of them who remembered Zayn from previous painting parties talked to him about what they would be painting: a night sky with a moon reflecting over a river.

“Just yell at me if I say something dumb, OK?” Zayn requested.

“You’ll be fine,” one man told him.

“I was here like, three weeks ago with my friends,” a blonde woman who Zayn assumed to be the man’s girlfriend said, “and you were very helpful with my painting of the wine glasses. Do you remember that?”

“I do, actually.” Zayn nodded. “You didn’t need that much help, though.”

“Please,” she scoffed. “The wine in those glasses looked more purple and less red with each stroke of my brush. You got me out of that; I’m sure you’ll do great.”

Zayn smiled. “Thank you.” 

At 7:00, Zayn put on his headset and called for everyone’s attention. “If you wouldn’t mind finding your way to your easels, we’ll get started.”

He stood up at the front as they all sat down on their stools and looked up to Zayn for their next step.

“My name is Zayn, for anybody who doesn’t know me,” he introduced easily. “I’ve been working here for about a month now, and if you’ve been here before, you’ve probably seen me walking around, and giving you guys advice on how to make your paintings the absolute best. This is my first class being the lead instructor, though, so I am a little nervous. But I promise I’ll still be able to walk you through your painting and have it turn out just as good as mine.”

“Are you a miracle worker?” someone from the back called out.

Zayn joined in with the laughter that followed.

“No, I’m not a miracle worker, but I, along with Sophia and Kevin-,“ he pointed out the two others wearing nametags, “will be able to help you tonight. Your paintings will not be terrible, I assure you. Listen, if I can walk my girlfriend, who has no artistic training at all, through this painting, then I can walk all of you through it.”

“Figures you have a girlfriend,” a blonde in the very front muttered.

Zayn glanced over at her with a smirk.

She quickly avoided his gaze once she realized that he heard her.

“You’re all going to be amazed at what you are capable of by the end of this two-hour session,” Zayn concluded. “So let’s get started, shall we?”

\---

On Wednesday morning, the first day of classes, Harry laid in his bed, thinking of his schedule for the day. He had three classes – two in the morning and one in the afternoon – to “look forward to.”

It wasn’t that he wasn’t excited for the first day of classes, he just wasn’t excited for everything that came with starting school: homework, studying, less free time, etc.

He looked over at his alarm clock and saw that it was just after 8, meaning he had two hours and twenty minutes until his first class.

Releasing a yawn, he rolled onto his side and closed his eyes, hoping to get a little more sleep before the semester began.

No such luck.

His phone started going off, and he lifted his head off his pillow to figure out where it was. He felt around under the sheets until he found it wedged in between the mattress and the wall.

“Hey, babe,” he greeted after sliding the phone unlocked. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Just wanted to wish you luck on your first day of classes,” Louis replied easily. “You got a long day ahead of you, don’t you?”

“No, just three classes. Monday’s my long day. Two back-to-back classes in the morning; afternoon class, followed by meetings, and then a night class.”

“Yeah, but once you start the paper again, Wednesdays will be just as long.”

“You didn’t have to remind me of that, Louis. I still have two weeks until that happens.”

Louis laughed. “Sorry. I’m a bit of a realist, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

Louis said something in the background.

“Who was that?” Harry asked.

“Just my mom. She has a doctor’s appointment in an hour.”

“Is she still sick?”

“Yeah, and it’s been going on for more than a month now. Like, she hasn’t been throwing up as much, but she still gets headaches out of nowhere. Like, headaches worse than mine.”

“Lou, she’s not like, pregnant, is she?”

There was nothing but silence for a moment.

Harry pulled the phone away from his ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

“Louis? You there?”

“Harry, my mom’s 40 years old. There’s no way she’s pregnant. Is that even possible?”

Harry resisted the urge to laugh. “I think it is possible, babe. And it would explain all the throwing up and her just generally feeling like shit.”

“No. There’s no way.”

“Louis-“

“No,” he repeated a little more forcefully. “There’s. No. Way.”

“OK, OK,” Harry surrendered. “Just voicing a thought.”

“Well it’s the wrong thought. Ew. I don’t even want to think about that. Especially while I’m here trying to have my breakfast before work.”

“OK. Sorry. I apologize for ever bringing that up.”

“Thank you. Don’t ever do that again.”

“I won’t,” Harry laughed. “Anyway, did you talk to Zayn about how his first class went?”

“Briefly. He texted me last night when he got home. He said it went great, and everybody’s pictures resembled his when they were finished. Turns out he was worried for nothing.”

“Shocker there. I’ll have to text him a ‘Congrats’ later today.”

“Yeah, I think we’re gonna hit the bar later to celebrate.”

“Have fun,” Harry tried to hide the pout from his voice. “Take a shot of something for me.”  

“Body shot?”

“In your dreams, Tomlinson.”

“You know I’m joking, baby,” Louis laughed. “The only one I want to take a shot off is you.”

“You better say that.”

“I say it and I mean it.”

“Damn straight.”

\---

Three hours later, Harry walked out of his Art Appreciation class.

He only had to go down one flight of stairs to get to his next one: Feature Writing. He walked into the room, remembering it to be one he had last year.

The room was long. On the left side were tables set up into a U-shaped design in front of a computer and projector. His professors last year always used that part of the space to give minor presentations and instruction to the students before sending them to work on the other side of the room, where there were about twenty computers for them to use.

Harry hoped that meant they would have time during class to work on their writing assignments, and wouldn’t have to do it all on their own time.

He sat down at one of the tables and dropped his bag on the floor by his feet.

He resisted the urge to shut his eyes, since he was already tired from his first class.

Harry didn’t want to take Art Appreciation, but it was yet another requirement for his major.

He could already tell that it would be a boring class, as expected, and it didn’t help that it would be the first class of the day every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It would be too easy to simply skip it in favor of, well, anything else.

Harry heard someone sit down in the chair next to him and glanced over, surprised to see Cher beaming at him.

“You’re in this class, too?” he asked, although the answer was pretty obvious.

“Yes, sir,” she replied. “I’m going to assume you’re in the right room? This is for Feature Writing, right?”

“That’s what my schedule says, yeah.”

“Awesome! I hate writing classes when I don’t know anybody. You just know we’re going to have to do at least one partner project in this class before the semester ends.”

“I call you,” Harry immediately cut in.

“Ditto.”

A few minutes later, their professor, no other than their adviser Dr. Teasdale, came strolling in.

“OK, for anybody who doesn’t know me,” she began as she sat down, “my name’s-“

She stopped when she saw Harry and Cher sitting together. The two students smiled widely at her in response.

“Oh, boy.” Teasdale shook her head. She looked out at the rest of the class and joked, “Newspaper people. Am I right?”

The other students lightly laughed, knowing exactly what she meant.

“Hey, I take offense to that,” Cher protested.

“So do I,” Harry joined in. “I have as much to learn as anybody else. I only take photos; I know nothing about writing articles.”

“And I do Opinion. What do I know about writing about people? I only go on rants every week about things that bother me.”

The two of them knew she wasn’t seriously insulting them, but, to the Communication and Journalism majors, it _was_ understood that newspaper editors were usually the best in the Writing classes. It probably had something to do with the fact that they were constantly writing and editing articles because they chose to, and not just for a grade.

Plus, if more than one of them was in a class together, it was pretty common for them to egg each other on and show off their skills for the class.

And if one of the advisers was the professor for the class? Forget it. It was pretty much _The Taylor Times Show_. Good luck trying to actually get a word in during class.

“Anyway, my name is Dr. Teasdale, and this is Feature Writing,” Teasdale announced. “I assume you’ve all read the syllabus, so I’m not going to bother going over it. What we will be doing today is: jumping right in. You’ll partner up-“

Cher shot a look over at Harry, who just smirked.

“- And you and your partner will get to know each other today and Friday. On Monday, you’ll be turning in your first story: a feature on your partner. It doesn’t have to be anything too in depth. I’m only requiring 500 words about some interesting angle on the person you’re working with: maybe a cool job or hobby; maybe they’re super into volunteer work and they want to change the world one day. I don’t know, but it’s up to you to find an angle, because that’s what Feature Writing is all about.”

She soon dismissed the class then to find someone to work with, and Harry and Cher just took out their notebooks to get started.

“Can you two work with someone else?” Teasdale requested, although it was clear on her face she already knew the answer.

“Why?” Cher wondered innocently.

“Because I’d like for you to work with someone you don’t know.”

“But I don’t know anything about her,” Harry replied.

Teasdale rolled her eyes, though there wasn’t any actual annoyance beyond it.

“I mean,” he continued, well aware that his classmates were watching the exchange, “I don’t even know her name. But I do think she’s from… the Midwest, based on her accent. Am I right?”

“Absolutely.” Cher nodded, going along with the joke. “From the corn fields of Nebraska. But this guy, who I definitely don’t sit next to every week, must hate hair cuts, based on how long his hair is.”

She gently tugged at a loose curl to prove her point.

“That part is true, actually,” Harry admitted.

“Is it?”

“It is!”

“Oh, for the love of-“ Teasdale sighed. “Whatever. Do what you want.”

“Love you, T.” Harry grinned.

She just shook her head fondly in response.

“Suck ups,” a girl next to Cher muttered. Harry remembered having an English class with her their freshman year.

“Jealous,” Cher shot back.

“It’s gonna be a long semester, isn’t it?” Harry wondered as he started doodling on the first page of his notebook.

“Probably.”

The two of them just shrugged at each other and got started ‘getting to know’ their partner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized that with Monday Meetings, I never really showed anybody going to class, like EVER, so I'm adjusting that a little bit, as you can see.  
> Also, I'm just gonna take the time to shamelessly plug the oneshot I wrote and posted last week, in case you didn't see it and would like to read it. It's called [I Can't Say Goodbye (Are There Windows in Heaven?)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3562973). Please be sure to read all the tags and stuff before reading, just in case. I don't want to offend anybody!


	5. First Anniversary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been so distracted by all the (new) drama going on lately, I didn't think I would get this up today, but I did!  
> Yay!

Louis and two of his sisters, Lottie and Fizzy, all stared at their mother in shock. None of them knew what to say, so they sat with their eyes wide and their jaws dropped.

“So, if you want to say something, that would be great.” Jay said.

 _Harry was fucking right,_ Louis thought to himself.

He glanced at Dan, who was standing next to his mom with a nervous look on his face.

The five of them were all in the living room, and Jay had just dropped a bombshell on her three oldest children.

“Is that even possible?” Lottie asked first.

Louis smirked. He was glad Harry wasn’t there. He couldn’t make fun of Lottie for asking the same question Louis had asked just a few days ago.

“It seems it is.” Jay nodded. “Believe me, we were surprised, too.”

“But you’re like, old,” Fizzy blurted out.

“Fiz!” her siblings hissed at her from either side.

“Félicité, I’m 40,” Jay scolded. “It’s not like I was alive when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.”

“What Fizzy meant to say was,” Louis jumped in to explain, “isn’t it more dangerous for you to be pregnant? Because you’re… You know…”

“Old?”

Louis struggled to find another response other than a whispered “Yeah,” but it was all he could come up with.

Jay sighed. “The doctor said I’m high risk, which basically means more monitoring, more doctors’ appointments, more vitamins and possibly bed rest when I get closer to my due date. But it’s not impossible.”

“When are you due?” Lottie wondered.

“April 2nd; we still have a bit of time to go.”

Louis and his sisters nodded, but gave no other reaction.

“We haven’t told the twins yet,” Dan revealed. “We wanted to tell you three the news first, and we’ll tell them tonight.”

Louis nodded again.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Jay said slowly, “but I hope you kids are OK with this. Or, at least, will be.”

“Of course we’re OK with it, Mom.” Fizzy smiled. She stood up and gave her mother a hug. “And I’m sorry for what I said before. You’re not old.”

“Thanks, Fiz.” Jay hugged her daughter back.

“We’re happy for you, Mom,” Lottie told her mother. She joined in on the hug, soon feeling her brother next to her.

After a moment, they pulled apart, and Louis turned to Dan.

“Well, if you weren’t part of the family before, you definitely are now,” he commented.

Dan laughed as he agreed to the statement. “Yeah, I guess you guys are all stuck with me now. I mean, I’m gonna be a _dad._ It still feels unreal.”

“Well, congratulations. You’re gonna be a good one.”

\---

“You’re gonna get yourself killed,” Harry decided. “You know that, right?”

“I’ll be fine,” Niall scoffed. “Plenty of people have done it before, and none of them have ever gotten severely hurt.”

“I think you’re lying about that to make yourself less worried.”

“Am not.”

“Are, too.”

The two of them were in Niall’s room on Saturday while the blonde got ready to head out. He was going to Josh’s house for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary.

The real date was on Monday, but since Josh had work, and Niall would be in class for most of the day, they wouldn’t be able to celebrate then.

“Harry, I’m just wearing a Red Bulls shirt to a Union game. It’s not like I’m wearing Mets gear to watch the Phillies play.”

“Still.”

“Or, a Cowboys jersey to see the Eagles.”

“I guess.” Harry sighed. “Just don’t be surprised if you get booed somewhere.”

“Hey, you should be proud of me for keeping my New York pride alive,” Niall commented as he double-checked his bags to make sure he had everything.

“Whatever. Where are you sitting, anyway?”

“No idea. Josh won’t tell me. I’m just excited to be watching an MLS game. I haven’t been to one in years, and no offense to the Taylor team, but college soccer doesn’t compare.”

Harry didn’t have anything to add. He wasn’t a huge soccer fan.

He liked the sport enough, and would usually get roped in to playing against Louis when his boyfriend wanted to kick the ball around in his backyard.

But he wasn’t a fan like Niall was.

“You still going over to Liam’s today?” Niall asked, breaking Harry away from his thoughts.

“Yup; later on, though. Zayn and Louis are driving up and we’re all gonna hang out.”

“Well have fun. Don’t do any Wal-Mart trips without me.”

“We wouldn’t dare.” Harry grinned.

Jake knocked on the open door before taking a small step inside. “You ready?”

He was dressed for a run, wearing a loose pair of shorts, a tank top and black sneakers.

Harry nodded and jumped down from his spot on Niall’s bed.

“See you later, Niall,” Harry told his roommate. “Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“A little late for that, don’t you think?”

Both Harry and Jake wrinkled their noses at the meaning of the statement before exiting their apartment.

“Where should we go?” Jake asked as they descended the stairs.

“Um, I guess around the lake and then up past the rec center? We can swing by the dining hall and loop back.”

“We’ll hit the dining hall and then go across the street toward the dorms, and go toward the quad. And then we can come back.”

“Sounds good,” Harry said. They stretched when they got outside for a few minutes before taking off on the discussed route.

As he ran, Harry admired his college campus. Since the weather was still nice, and the semester had only just begun on Wednesday, a lot of students were outside lounging on the grass.

Some girls were even dressed down to their bikinis, soaking in the sunlight. Not that Harry or Jake particularly cared about that.

When they passed the dorms, Harry let out a silent sigh of relief that he wasn’t living there anymore.

He remembered last year how the high temperatures outside had made being inside unbearable. Plus, there was barely any room to move around indoors.

Last night, he was faced with the _terrible_ decision of watching TV with his three roommates in the living room or alone in his own room, both of which had air conditioning.

It was a tough road, but if someone had to take it, Harry gladly would.

About ten minutes later, they found themselves approaching their building again.

“Another lap?” Jake breathed out.

Harry just gave a thumbs-up, and they stuck to the sidewalk instead of cutting across the grass to their apartment.

By the time they returned, Harry’s tank top was soaked nearly through, and he couldn’t wait to get into the shower.

“I call the bathroom first,” Jake announced while Harry unlocked the front door.

“Dick,” Harry muttered.

“Hey, I didn’t do anything to you,” Xander shot back as the boys walked in.

Harry and Jake looked up to see their other roommate standing by the fridge in the kitchen, where they now stood.

“Not you, X.” Harry laughed. “I meant Jake.”

Xander sniffed the air. “Where did you guys run to? The sun?”

“It’s hot outside, man,” Jake replied as an explanation. He walked down the hallway to his room.

“Don’t worry, we’ll smell better soon,” Harry assured.

“I sure hope so.” Xander shook his head. “Wow.”

Harry walked into his room and heard his phone going off.

Before he could reach it, however, it stopped ringing, and he read the screen to see that it had been Louis on the phone.

He was shocked, though, to find that his boyfriend had called not once, but seven times.

He immediately called back, fearing the worst.

“Harry, oh, my God,” Louis gasped into the phone.

“What’s the matter?” he asked frantically. “What happened?”

“Harry, this is the worst thing ever. Oh, my God.”

“Louis, what’s going on?”

“You were right. Ugh, this sucks. You were right.”

“I was right? About what? And why do you sound like you’re gonna be sick?”

“Because I honestly might be. Ew, ew, ewwww.”

“Louis, what the fuck is happening!”

“My mom’s pregnant,” Louis confessed. “She’s having a baby. Dan got her pregnant, and ugh-“

Louis cut himself off as he started gagging.

“Louis, calm down!” Harry urged. “You cannot be serious right now.”

“Oh, I’m serious right now. My mom had sex. _Sex,_ Harry!”

“Yeah, that’s usually how babies are made, Lou.”

“But I don’t want to know about it. Like, it’s been confirmed, though. She _does it,_ Harry.”

“I understand that, Louis.” Harry rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help but shake his head, though. He felt like he was dating a five year old who just discovered what ‘cooties’ were.

“This is not what I want to be thinking about, Haz. It’s Saturday, I should be happy right now. Instead, I’m thinking about my mom having sex and I’m gonna have another little sister running around. _Oh, my God, another sister._ ”

“Louis, for all you know, you could have a brother. It’s a 50/50 shot, you know.”

“Please, Harry.” Louis scoffed. “Look at my track record. My mom’s going to have another girl. Maybe two; I mean, twins run in the family. With my luck, she’ll have triplets, and they’ll all be girls. I would have seven sisters, Harry. Seven!”

Harry laughed. “You’re being ridiculous.” 

“Stop giggling! I am not! What if your mom was pregnant? You wouldn’t be laughing then!”

Harry had to admit Louis was right. He would be a little weirded out if the roles were reversed.

“OK, fine, it’s a little strange.”

“Thank you.”

“But come on, this is a happy time!" Harry said. "This is exciting. You’re going to be a big brother again.”

“Harry, I don’t know if I remember how to be a big brother.”

“Louis, you’ve said some dumb things before…”

“No, hear me out. This one will actually make sense.”

“OK,” Harry consented. “Go ahead.”

“It’s just… The twins are ten. They’re, like, preteens. Lottie and Fizzy are seventeen and fifteen. Like, I don’t remember what to do when they’re little. Like, changing diapers and making bottles; having tea parties, and playing Barbies and dress up.”

“You’ll remember,” Harry said softly.

“But what if I suck at it?” Louis worried.

“You’ve been the literal best brother I’ve ever seen to your sisters. You’ll be just as great to your new little brother or sister.”

“Sister, Harry. Just admit it.”

“Not until it’s confirmed what your mom is having. Think on the bright side.”

“I guess,” Louis sighed.

“Where are you, anyway?”

“The backyard.”

“The back-“ Harry grunted. “Louis, your mom can probably hear you, you know.”

“No, she can’t. She’s in her room, taking a nap. She has to work later.”

“Speaking of which, what’s gonna happen now? Like, with work and with Dan and everything?”

“What do you mean, with Dan?”

“Like, is he moving in? Are they getting married?”

“I don’t know, Harry. Shit, I only found out about the pregnancy like, twenty minutes ago. I don’t even know if they know yet.”

“Well Dan’s excited, though, right?” Harry questioned.

“Yeah, he’s thrilled. You should’ve seen the smile on his face when he saw that we were excited about it, too. It was really cute, actually.”

“Well, good. When’s she due?”

“April 2nd,” Louis answered.

“So in seven months, you could have a little brother to spoil.”

“Little sister, Harry. Come on. Don’t get my hopes up.”

“Like you wouldn’t be happy with either.”

“Yeah, babies are pretty cool,” Louis agreed. “Think I could get her to play soccer with me?”

“Maybe not right away, but probably when it can walk and run.”

“OK. I guess I can wait that long.”

“Good. Now stop freaking out and go get ready. I’ll see you in a few hours?”

“Try and stop me.”

Harry smiled. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

After they hung up, Harry just shook his head again.

There was never a dull moment being Louis’ boyfriend; that was for sure.

\---

“We’re still walking, we’re still walking,” Niall muttered to himself as he and Josh descended the steps.

The two of them were at PPL Park, there to watch a [Philadelphia Union](http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/) soccer game.

Josh had told Niall a few days ago that they would be attending the match against the [New York Red Bulls](http://www.newyorkredbulls.com/) for their anniversary, but he neglected to tell Niall where their seats were.

“Holy shit, Josh,” he gasped as he sat down. “You got us front row tickets _on the halfway line?_ ”

“Yup,” Josh smirked. “Perks of working for CSN. There are always tickets to be given away for anyone who wants or deserves them the most. There aren’t that many soccer fans in the office, so I could probably get us tickets for the next few home games, too.”

“Please do.”

“It’s just too bad you’re a fan of the wrong team,” Josh commented.

“Not this again.”

He and Josh had gotten into an argument last night because Josh would be wearing a Union jersey, while Niall, the New Yorker that he was, refused to support a Philadelphia team.

Instead, he donned a Red Bulls T-shirt, much to the displeasure of his boyfriend, and the fans surrounding them, as well.

“Just saying, if you wore Union colors, we could be sitting over there.”

He pointed over at the section directly behind the Visitor’s goal, looking out onto the field.

It was appropriately called, The River End, as right behind the seats was the Delaware River.

It was the section for only the most passionate of Union fans, as the people there spent the entire match on their feet, cheering on their team and booing the opposition. Phrases were chanted and inappropriate words were thrown through the air for a full ninety minutes. It wasn’t for children or the faint of heart.

If Niall were a Union fan, he would’ve been there in a heartbeat. But since Josh knew Niall so well, and knew that the blonde one would wear a Red Bulls shirt, he thought it best to avoid that section so they wouldn’t get jumped during the game or in the parking lot after.

He was only being considerate.

“Don’t care.” Niall shook his head. “Look, take me to Red Bull Arena, and then we’ll sit in their version of the River End.”

“Don’t know if they have one, actually.”

“Only in Philly would there be a section just for the rude fans.”

“Philly pride at its finest.” Josh grinned sarcastically.

“Happy anniversary, by the way.”

“Happy anniversary, babe.”

Niall leaned over and kissed Josh quickly. “I meant what I said about getting more tickets, though.”

“I know you did,” Josh laughed.

The game started a few minutes later, and Niall soon found himself standing more than sitting.

“Are you kidding me?” he shouted toward the field. A Union player had just taken out a Bulls player, giving the Union possession of the ball. “Ref, are we watching the same game?”

“Babe, sit down,” Josh pleaded.

“No way! That should’ve been a foul! A hit like that was totally unnecessary. And it wasn’t clean at all. The ref needs to throw a damn flag!”

“Well…” Josh shrugged.

“Ugh, I forgot how gross you Philly fans are,” Niall huffed, sitting himself back down.

“Are not. Union came to fight today. Not my fault I give them props for it.”

“Shut up. I’m breaking up with you.”

“You are not.”

“Of course I’m not; I just want to win,” Niall whined as the game picked up again.

All of a sudden, the Bulls were in possession again, and Niall found himself back on his feet.

“Get in!” he shouted when his team scored, much to his delight, and annoyance of everyone around him except for the other Bulls fans one section over.

“I still love you, even if you’re cheering on a losing team,” Niall bragged, sitting back down.

“Yeah, whatever. You know, you don’t have to come back to my house after this.”

“No! Your mom is making stuffed shells for dinner. I have to go.”

“Well then, I suggest you keep your trash talk to yourself. Don’t think I won’t leave you wandering the streets outside the stadium wearing a shirt from the opposing team.”

Niall gasped. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me.”

Niall pouted.

“Don’t give me that face,” Josh warned, although his tough exterior was starting to crack.

“Josh, please don’t ditch me in the mean streets of Philly. I’ll never make it back alive.”

“We’re not even in Philly, first of all. We’re in Chester.”

“Even worse!” Niall protested, the corners of his lips starting to curve up into a smile. “I don’t even know where the fuck I am. I’ll never get home.”

“With that face? You’ll get home just fine.”

“It would be a lot easier if I had you to take me home, though.”

“Fine, I won’t abandon you,” Josh sighed as if it were a huge inconvenience.

“Thanks. I love you, you know.”

“Love you, too.”

They kissed once more.

“Now watch the game,” Josh said.

“OK. Maybe your team will actually score now.”

Josh shot him a look.

“Sorry. Last one, I swear.”

\---

“I think I want to move out,” Louis announced to Harry, Liam and Zayn.

The four of them were in Liam’s basement that night, lounging on the couch and eating pizza.

“Where’s this coming from?” Zayn wondered.

Harry shot a look at his boyfriend, suspicious that this had something to do with Jay’s pregnancy.

“I don’t know.” Louis shrugged. “I mean, the goal was always to move out when I could, and lately, it’s just been sort of… _crowded_ in my house.”

“I know what you mean,” Zayn agreed. “It’s so hectic being in my house with all of the girls now. Like, it was easy living with you guys last year, but just, being surrounded by three sisters all the time now…” He sighed. “It’s not as much fun. That’s why I spend so much time over at my uncle’s house.”

“You spend time over there because your uncle has a pool,” Harry said.

“Yeah; plus, he’s never home. It’s quiet. I can paint for as long as I want and then go home.”

“Why don’t you just move in there?” Liam asked.

“Oh, I could never live there. It’s too quiet.”

“Didn’t you just…” Louis questioned, a confused tone to his voice.

“Yeah, I did.” Zayn nodded. “I meant, his house is too much house for one person. It’s creepy to stay there at night by yourself because you can hear everything. I like going home and sleeping in a full house.”

“Makes sense,” Liam said.

“I know.”

Harry and Louis chuckled.

“At least you’re still modest.”

“I try.”

“I definitely want to move out, too, though,” Liam continued. “Like, my car’s paid off already, and I’m making decent money now, so I could do it. Nothing against my parents or anything, but I miss living in an apartment with like, you guys. Plus, when Dani comes over, we have absolutely no privacy. There’s just no way I could without a roommate.”

“You guys should move in together,” Zayn suggested, pointing between Liam and Louis.

The two of them raised their eyebrows and glanced at each other.

“We would be roommates again?” Liam asked with a small smile on his face.

“Just when you thought you’d escaped me, Payno.”

“It would have to be close to my job.”

“It would have to be closer to _my_ job,” Louis countered.

“Louis,” Liam warned.

“Not even living together yet and I’m already pissing you off. This is gonna be great!”

“This is a bad idea.”

“Liam, you two lived together for three years throughout college,” Zayn reminded him. “You guys would just be actual adults this time.”

“And I can totally be an adult,” Louis assured. “I promise.”

Harry tried to keep his face blank so he wouldn’t let on how… well, he wasn’t sure how he felt. Hurt? Frustrated? Sad?

It was hard enough knowing that Louis hung out with Zayn on a regular basis, and could also see Josh whenever he wanted since he only lived twenty to thirty minutes away from each of them.

On top of this, he might be living with Liam and seeing him everyday?

Maybe he was worried. He wasn’t on the same campus as Louis anymore, and because he was overloading, he would inevitably have more homework and responsibilities to tend to on the weekends.

Yeah, worried was what he was feeling. Not that Louis would replace him with Liam or Zayn, but just that he would stop missing Harry as much as Harry would miss him.

He knew he was being ridiculous, but call it a knee-jerk reaction: He was nervous.

Louis grinned. “Make it happen, Li.” 

“You’re going to help me with this, Louis. I’m not doing this alone.”

“All right, I’ll help. Don’t get all tense.”

“Hey, you guys realize,” Zayn started, “if you try to find somewhere right in between you, that’ll be like, where I live?”

“That’s true,” Liam conceded.

“I can come over for dinner every night!”

“You definitely have that backwards, Z,” Louis shook his head. “If Liam works late, expect me over to eat.”

Harry bit his lower lip.

So not only would Louis be living with Liam, but he would see Zayn literally all the time now.

Even better.

\---

Niall got out of his car Sunday night and grabbed his bag from the backseat.

It had been sad to say goodbye to Josh, but he'd stalled as long as he could.

It was almost 11 p.m., and he and Josh respectively had school and work in the morning.

The two of them had parted ways, promising to get together the next available weekend, which, now that Niall thought about it, probably wouldn’t be for at least two weeks.

He entered his building and hurried up the steps, eager to put his stuff down and relax.

He walked out of the stairwell and heard shouts coming from, big surprise, his own apartment.

Niall didn’t even bother getting his key ready.

The door was unlocked, like he assumed it would be, and he walked through the kitchen and into the living rom, finding Harry and Jake playing FIFA on the Xbox while Xander was texting someone from his seat on one of the armchairs.

“Hey hey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” Harry grunted, keeping his eyes on the television.

Jake just nodded at Niall’s arrival.

He threw his stuff in his room before rejoining his roommates.

“Who’s winning?” he asked, sinking down onto the futon.

“Jake,” Xander answered without looking up from his phone.

Niall supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Despite playing the game all the time with Louis last year, Harry still hadn’t improved any.

“I hate this game,” Harry complained once his team lost. “Where’s Louis? He would let me win.”

“In all fairness,” Jake laughed, “Louis is also sleeping with you. Of course he would let you win.”

“Whatever,” Harry replied. He passed his controller off to Xander and then moved to sit by Niall so Xander could be in front of the screen.

“So how was your weekend?” Harry asked Niall once the other two started their game.

“Great. We went to the Union game yesterday, and the Red Bulls won, 1-0. Then we went back to his house and had dinner with his family. We ended up on South Street for a while, and wound up at this bar called Fat Tuesday.”

Harry just shrugged at the mention of Philadelphia geography. He’d heard of South Street before, but didn’t know what Fat Tuesday was.

“Louis really needs to take you to Philly,” Niall said.

“He promised he would. We were supposed to go over the summer, but our schedules just never lined up.”

“Well let me know when you go, because I’m tired of getting those blank stares whenever I mention something about the city.”

“You’re not losing your hometown pride, are you, Niall?” Harry grinned.

“Of course not. Did you forget I wore a New York shirt to the game yesterday?”

“Oh, that’s right. OK, continue.”

“Anyway, we slept in super late this morning and just hung out around his house. And now I’m here.”

“Sounds like you had fun.”

“We did. Sucked saying goodbye, though.”

“Same.”

“Yeah, how was yesterday?” Niall wondered.

“Nothing big. I went over to Liam’s, and Louis and Zayn got there a little bit after I did. We just got pizza and watched TV.”

Harry left out the part about Louis’ mom, since his boyfriend hadn’t mentioned it yesterday to Liam and Zayn. He guessed Louis wanted to keep news of the pregnancy a secret for a little while, maybe until after her first trimester? He wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t about to tell Louis’ secrets if he didn’t want them out there.

There was one thing he could say, though.

“Oh, Louis and Liam might be moving in together.”

“Really?” Niall asked excitedly. “Oh, that would be awesome. Did they just say so last night?”

“They just _decided_ last night,” Harry explained. “They were both just saying that they wanted to move out, and Zayn said they should move in together. They have to work it all out, but it’ll probably happen soon.”

“Man, we’re gonna have so many options of where to hang out this year. So many of us have apartments now.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” Harry said.

“How are you so good at this game?” Jake shrieked, interrupting their conversation. “You barely even play!”

Harry and Niall checked the score to see it 3-1 in favor of Xander.

“Sorry, man,” Xander fake-apologized. “And that’s game.”

He scored one more goal as the buzzer sounded out.

“I’m going to bed,” he announced, standing up. “What do you guys got tomorrow?”

“Niall and I have a newspaper meeting at 4:30 and night class at 6:45,” Harry answered.

“Classes in the morning; same as Wednesday,” Jake answered.

“So you’ll be around for dinner?” Xander asked.

“Yup.”

“Cool. Night, boys.”

“Night, X,” the other three echoed back to him.

“I’m calling it a night, too,” Niall said.

“Good night,” Harry and Jake replied.

Niall walked into his room and flopped down on his bed.

He took his phone out of his back pocket so he could set his alarm for the morning.

Before he could, he found that Josh had texted him.

**_Josh: Look what you left behind._ **

Included in the message was a picture of Josh making a grumpy face, wearing Niall’s Red Bulls shirt.

**_Josh: What should I do with it?_ **

**_Niall: Keep it. It looks good on you._ **

**_Josh: Never. It burns my skin._ **

**_Josh: It’s finding its way to the nearest trashcan._ **

**_Niall: Evil. Just watch. Next time I’m down, don’t be surprised if your Union jersey goes missing. Or worse, your Eagles jersey._ **

**_Josh: You’re evil._ **

**_Niall: ;)_ **

**_Niall: You love me, though._ **

**_Josh: Switch teams, and then we’ll talk._ **

**_Niall: Switch teams? Like, bat for the other one? If I did that, then we wouldn’t make a compatible couple, would we?_ **

**_Josh: I hate you._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me just tell you, it's hard writing a story with established couples. It's such a challenge coming up with angst and drama for everybody when all of the main characters are in committed relationships.  
> That's probably why my other three fics don't have established couples, or at least, Louis and Harry aren't in one.  
> I'm doing what I can, though. You guys can probably already see that.  
> Hope you're still enjoying!


	6. Starting Out Slowly

Harry looked over his shoulder at all of the aspiring writers and (hopefully) photographers currently filling the newspaper office. It was the first meeting of the year, and as always, there was an excellent turnout.

To Harry’s unease, nobody had a camera. He hoped that just meant that there were people who wanted to be photographers, but simply didn’t have their own cameras or didn’t bring cameras with them tonight.

Harry had e-mailed his returning photographers from last year and been able to assign most of the upcoming stories to them. Unfortunately, he had two events left that needed pictures, and they were at the same time: a soccer game against Marshall and a guest speaker at the rec center.

Harry was willing to photograph one of them if necessary, but he couldn’t be in both places at once, so he would need someone to do the other.

He had his fingers crossed, though, that he could find two people at tonight’s meeting to photograph the events so he could stay in the office that night instead. Plus, now that Zayn had graduated, he would need at least three new steady photographers to do the amount of work his friend had done.

“OK,” Dani announced once everybody had gone through their stories for the week, “so what happens now is that you’ll all get the chance to talk to the editors of the sections that you want to work for. Feel free to talk to more than one editor; you’re absolutely not limited to just one section.”

At the start of the meeting, each editor had introduced him- or herself to the crowd, and given a few reasons why his or her section was the one to work for.

“All of the editors will be at their desks, and Harry, the photo editor, will be by his office just over there. Eleanor and I will be up here if you have any questions. Thank you everybody for coming.”

Everyone stood up. The writers made their way over to the editors they wished to speak to, and pretty soon, it was difficult to hear anything with the amount of chatter that filled the room.

“Before you leave here, make sure you give Casey your name, e-mail address and cell phone number,” Niall instructed the students interested in sports writing.

“Constantly be thinking of things you could write about,” Cher said to the small crowd surrounding her. “The best part about Opinion writing is that you’re not restricted to any one kind of topic.”

Harry smiled to himself as he heard Cher speak, remembering those exact words coming out of Louis’ mouth when talking about his section.

“If you don’t have a camera,” Harry told the mostly underclassman group staring at him, “we do have cameras you can borrow for your photo assignments only. You sign one out here and bring it back when the event is over. Always make sure it has a memory card in it, otherwise the photos will be lost when you turn off the camera.”

He made sure they were all following along before continuing.

“We take pictures for every other section, so there’s always going to be the chance to photograph something different: sports games, art gallery openings, guest speakers and any other event here at Taylor. Now, I actually need two people for this week, if anybody wants to jump right in. I need someone to take pictures of the soccer game on Wednesday night, and someone to be at the guest speaker’s presentation in the rec center, which is also on Wednesday night. They both start at 7. For any assignment, I want you to be there at least fifteen minutes early. Would any of you be available for either of these events?”

One hand shyly rose up.

Harry looked at the newbie, assuming he was a freshman.

“Perfect,” he commented. “Which one?”

“The guest speaker? I was planning on going anyway.”

“Awesome. How about the soccer game?”

“I can do it,” a girl offered, raising her hand, as well.

“Great, guys. Yeah, don’t be afraid to volunteer. There are usually a lot more assignments; I promise. It’s just a little crazy right now since the semester just started, so don’t worry: if you don’t get something tonight, you will soon.”

Harry got more students to sign up for his remaining assignments in the next two weeks, and then let all of them leave, except for the two who had volunteered for that week’s photos.

“So, I’m Harry, in case you forgot,” he re-introduced. “And your names are…?”

“Mike,” the boy said.

“I’m Claire,” the girl greeted.

“Nice to meet you two,” Harry smiled. “Now, do either of you have cameras?”

They both shook their heads ‘no.’

“OK, so you can borrow ours. Like I said, just come in before your assignment and write down your name and phone number. Take it for the amount of time you need it and then bring it back when the event’s done.”

“Should we just come on Wednesday, then?” Claire asked.

“Yeah. We try to keep them out for as short a time as we can, so that we can lend them to as many photographers as possible.”

“What time on Wednesday?” Mike questioned.

“On Wednesday…” Harry thought over his schedule for that day, “I’ll be here around 4:30, because I have an afternoon class. But you can come in earlier than that if it’ll work better for you. There will definitely be someone here by 3, and they can help you out, too.”

Mike and Claire nodded.

“Seems pretty straightforward,” Claire added.

“It is. And I’ll be here on Wednesday until about 10. The guest speaker will definitely be done by then, so Mike, you can bring the camera back that night. Claire, you might have to keep yours until Thursday. But I’ll be here by 2 on Thursday, so you can come any time after then.”

“Sounds good,” Mike told him.

“And call or e-mail me if you have any questions about anything. If you can’t make it, let me know ASAP so I can find somebody else to cover you.”

The two of them left soon after, both with a clear plan in their heads, and Harry walked out to the main office.

Most of the writers were gone by that point, so Harry waited for Niall.

The two of them had night class together in less than an hour.

Harry figured that since they’d just had pizza, they wouldn’t need to get dinner, but he didn’t know what his roommate would want to do.

“How’d you make out?” he asked Cher, dropping into the seat next to her desk.

“Pretty good, I think,” she nodded. She was typing up the list of potential Opinion writers and their contact information so that it was all saved on the server. “My stories for this week are all set thanks to some of the writers from last year, which is even better, because I think the new writers will need time to understand what a good Opinion piece looks like.”

“Too many facts, not enough opinion.”

“Exactly. That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Louis used to worry about that, too.”

Cher smiled slightly at the comparison. “Anyway, last year, he gave me a list of guidelines; like, what makes a good opinion article. I’m gonna go over it tonight and see if there’s anything I want to add, and I’m going to send it out to everybody.”

“How many new names did you get?”

“Twelve,” Cher answered.

“Impressive.”

“How about you?”

“Sixteen.”

“Good for you, Styles. All right, this is done.”

She clicked ‘Print’ on what she was typing and got up to retrieve it.

“Niall,” Harry loudly whined across the room where his roommate was still working.

“What?” the blonde one barely spared him a glance as he and Casey worked on an e-mail.

“Are we staying here until night class or are we going to get coffee or going back to the apartment or what are we doing?”

“OK, that was like, eight questions in one,” Niall said, without actually answering any of them.

“So you can give me at least one answer, then, right?”

Niall checked the time and saw that it was just after six. “Um, I guess we can run over to Coffee House and get something to snack on. Brown isn’t anti-food in the class, right?”

He was referring to their professor and also head of the Communications department, Dr. Patricia Brown. Harry tried to remember what she’d said at their first class last week.

“I don’t think so,” he responded.

Cher came back to her seat then.

“Pat Brown is good with food as long as you’re not obnoxious about it,” she cut into their conversation.

“OK, good,” Niall nodded. “You think she’ll keep us the whole time?”

“Yes,” Harry answered. “I mean, it’s a night class. This is the only night we’re meeting this week. Last week, I think it was just a fluke that we only stayed 2 1/2 hours instead of the full three.”

“That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, Harry.”

“Well you asked the wrong person, then, didn’t you, Niall?”

“Niall, can you read this over?” Casey asked, interrupting whatever comeback Niall was working on.

He turned his attention back to the computer screen and read the e-mail Casey had been typing.

“You’re so chipper,” he joked.

“What do you mean?” Casey asked.

“ _Welcome to Sports! Can’t wait to have a great year!”_ he mocked.

“Shut up! Last year, I would’ve loved to get an e-mail like this from you and Josh. It would’ve made me so much happier and more willing to stay.”

“You’re clearly staying, though,” Niall pointed out. “I mean, you’re the new Sports editor now.”

“Yeah, but at the beginning, I wasn’t a hundred percent on the decision, you know? Like, I was more willing to write for other sections, just to see. But you’re right. I am happy where I am now. But I gotta do what I can. You’re leaving me this year, so I’m hoping one of these people I’m e- mailing right now could be the next you.”

“Not possible; there isn’t anybody who could be the next ‘me.’”

“They are very difficult shoes to fill.”

“That’s right.”

Harry was glad to see Niall and Casey getting along, even putting on a little banter. It was nice that, since Josh was gone, Niall wasn’t shutting himself off from the other editor.

Although, it was _Niall_ that he was talking about. The blonde one loved everybody.

“OK, it’s good.” Niall approved of the e-mail. “Send it.”

“Sending.” Casey smiled. “All right; I’m out. See you Wednesday.”

“Adios.”

Casey gathered up her stuff and walked out with Cher, who was leaving, as well.

“Harry, you think they’ll have any chocolate chip muffins left at Coffee House?”

“I don’t know, Niall.” Harry said. “Do they know you’re coming?”

“If they do, they’ll know to have one ready and waiting for me when I get there.”

“Maybe you should call them now and ask them to put one in the microwave so it’ll be warm when you pick it up.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea!”

Niall pulled his phone out of his pocket and started to look up the number.

“Niall, stop!” Harry snatched the phone out of his hand and turned it off.

“It was your idea!”

“As a joke, Ni- Oh, my God, let’s just go. At this point, we’re gonna be late for class. And if there’s one thing I learned about Pat Brown last week, it’s that she doesn’t like people who are late.”

\---

Liam didn’t normally sit in on the morning board meetings.

He usually came into the office once the meeting was over, and got his assignments from his boss, Brooke.

But when he got to his desk, he saw that all of the editors were still going over the storyboard for the day, which meant that something was wrong.

Either a story had been set back due to a lack of sources and information, or there had been some kind of breaking news story that required the pages to be rearranged.

He hadn’t heard anything on his drive in, so he didn’t think there was anything big coming up.

As he peered into the office, Brooke looked up and beckoned him over with one crooked finger.

Startled, Liam looked behind him to see if there was anybody else she could be inviting in, but the only people around were other assistant or copy editors already working on something.

He made his way into her large office and found the head editors discussing last minute article ideas.

“Run me through our filler options again,” Brooke commanded.

“We have Harrison Township introducing the new tax,” Kelly, one of the managing editors immediately answered. “There’s the groundbreaking of the new housing development in Stanford Heights. Or, George Wilmer got denied a new trial-“

“The guy who killed his wife?” Andy from Sports asked.

“That’s the guy.”

“Liam, which one do you want?” Brooke wondered, turning her head toward him.

The man in question suddenly felt warm, sensing a few other pairs of eyes on him now, too.

“What?” he blurted out.

_Smooth, Liam._

“I asked which one you wanted,” Brooke repeated. “You’re going to be writing one of them. You might as well have a choice in the matter.”

“Really?”

“Yes. We’re a bit strapped for writers today, and I know you have writing experience from college, so I’m trusting you to write something for us today.”

“Um…”

“The Wilmer story is the most time sensitive right now,” Kelly interjected. “And probably the most interesting.”

“We haven’t covered it in a while,” Andy thought out loud.

“True,” Brooke commented. “Liam, want to write about the Wilmer case?”

“Yeah, sure,” he replied. He was still having some trouble wrapping his head around the fact that he would actually be writing an article for tomorrow’s paper instead of just reading it.

“Perfect.” Brooke smiled. “Have it ready to go by four.”

Liam gulped. It was already nine in the morning. That gave him seven hours to research, call sources, write, edit and revise an actual article.

He attempted to give his boss a reassuring stare, but he could tell she wasn’t buying it.

“Nothing big, Liam. Just 400 words or so.”

“OK.”

“Are we good for space now?” Brooke asked.

“Definitely,” answered Landon, the Layout editor. “With a 400-word story, plus a headline and two pictures and captions, that should fill that gap in News.”

“Excellent. Get to work, everyone.”

The other editors all rose to their feet and hastily exited the room.

Liam, however, felt himself glued to the floor.

He cleared his throat before asking the obvious, “Brooke, are you sure about this?”

“Of course I’m sure, Liam,” came her reply. “I wouldn’t have asked you in here if I wasn’t sure you could handle it. You were an editor yourself once, weren’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am-“

An icy glare halted Liam’s words.

“I mean, yes, Brooke. Entertainment. Then Managing, and finally Executive.”

“So you understand the rush to fill space, then, right?”

“I do.”

“Then I don’t see what the problem is. I’ll have some sources of contact e-mailed over to you right away. In the meantime, start researching the case and get a history of Wilmer’s time in prison and past appeals. OK?”

Liam nodded. “I won’t let you down.”

“You better not.” Brooke smiled. “Go ahead and get to work.”

He swiftly left her office and situated himself at his desk.

After giving himself thirty seconds to quietly freak out and send a text to Dani about _how much_ he was freaking out, he got to work.

It was going to be a busy day.

\---

Zayn’s alarm went off at 6 the next morning. With a groan, he slammed his hand up and turned it off. He let out a long yawn and shifted up into a sitting position.

Last night, he had convinced himself to get up early – before the sunrise – thinking that maybe he would feel some inspiration for what his next painting at work should be.

His plan was to get up and walk to the park a few streets over. He was going to take his camera with him and get some pictures of the sunrise, or the early sunlight falling on some flowers or something.

“This was a terrible fucking idea,” he muttered to himself.

He wanted to just go back to sleep, but he knew that this could genuinely help him find something good to teach a class. So as much as he wanted to crawl back under his blanket, he stood up, knowing he would be pissed if he had to do this all again tomorrow.

After getting out of the bathroom, he nearly collided with his dad, who was leaving his own bedroom to get ready for his workday.

Zayn himself was off today, so at least he could come back and take a nap.

He quickly returned to his room and got changed into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie before heading down to the kitchen.

His mom Trisha and sister Waliyha sat at the table, eating breakfast.

“Zayn!” Waliyha protested when her older brother stole a piece of toast from her plate.

He shrugged. “You’ll be all right.”

“You know, Zayn,” Trisha said, “I can show you how to make your own toast. It’s actually quite simple. You just put it in the little silver machine over there. It’s called a toaster. It even pops up when it’s done. You don’t have to do anything else.”

“Well, why would I do that and wait for toast when Waliyha has some right here?”

He tried to swipe her second piece, but she swatted his hands away.

Trisha rolled her eyes at her two middle children before asking, “What are you even doing up, Zayn? It’s a bit early, isn’t it?”

“I’m going down to the park. I want to shoot some pictures for my next painting.”

“At six in the morning?”

“Yeah.” Zayn nodded. “I want to do something with a sunrise, but I want a good picture to model the painting after.”

“Glad to see that big degree is coming in handy somehow,” Zayn’s father Yaser muttered as he walked into the room.

He took a seat next to his wife and grabbed the cup of coffee that she already had waiting for him.

“Um, well I- I mean,” Zayn stuttered out, “I could probably take some pictures to submit to a competition or something.”

“And get yourself a job after that?”

Trisha cleared her throat loudly, warning her husband to back off. Waliyha dropped her gaze to the rest of her breakfast to avoid the awkward family disagreement.

“Yeah, Pop,” Zayn agreed.

“Mm-hm,” Yaser hummed.

“Um, Mom, I have my key and my phone. I’ll be back soon.”

“OK, Sweetie.” Trisha smiled tightly.

He turned around and walked straight out of his house, willing himself not to let his father see him affected.

He’d known for years that his father had a problem with Zayn’s choice of interests. Yaser had wanted Zayn to pick something more stable, something he would be able to find a job in quickly. He’d always felt that Art – as a major and a hobby – was something that didn’t come with a lot of guarantees: like a job.

Zayn knew his dad supported _him,_ but not his major. The fact that he’d been graduated for four months already, and still didn’t have a, as Yaser thought, “real job,” didn’t help at all.

As he entered the park a few minutes later, he resolved to use his day off today looking for a second job: freelance photographer, art teacher, something.

Not for the first time, he thought about being an art teacher in a school, either public or private. He hadn’t looked too much into it, but he wondered how he would have to go about doing that if he decided to.

In the meantime, he vowed to devote himself to his job at the studio and enter more competitions like he just told his dad he would.

Either one would be good, as both would give him more practice behind the camera, though submitting his work to art or photo competitions would give his name more exposure.

Zayn reached the pond in the middle of the park by the time the sun was halfway above the horizon.

He started snapping pictures immediately: sunlight peeking through the trees, flowers emitting a soft glow from the sudden change in light, a rabbit peeking its eyes out from the safety of its burrow.

He didn’t know what he would want to use, so he kept moving and changing angles of the photos he took.

He liked having a lot of options, and that was probably made stronger from his time on the paper when he would usually photograph the same thing in about twenty different ways.

About a half hour later, he figured he was done.

While he looked through his camera roll, he heard someone jogging by.

He flicked his gaze up and saw a woman running by, her slightly loud breathing evenly paced with every few steps.

After she ran past him, he took a photo of her retreating form. She kept the woman off-center, making sure to keep the natural elements as more of the focal point.

OK. _Now_ he was done.

With a final glance through his pictures, he headed for home.

He had a painting to create, a second job to look for, and a dad to make proud.

\---

The second her professor said that class was over for the day, Dani shot out of her seat and out to the parking lot.

She’d already sat through two hours of lectures that morning and couldn’t wait any longer.

She reached her car quicker than usual and jumped in, heading straight toward the Wawa ten minutes away from campus.

Liam’s article was published in today’s issue of the _Cook County Gazette,_ the newspaper where he worked.

She’d already read it this morning online, of course, but she still wanted to get it in print.

When Liam had texted her yesterday, she could sense the overwhelming amount of nerves and fear he was feeling. But she knew he could do it, and after reading the article earlier, she was proven correct.

She hurried into the store after haphazardly pulling into a parking spot and planted herself in front of the newspaper shelf.

After finding the _Gazette_ right in the middle of the others, she grabbed a copy and searched through the pages until she found Liam’s name.

“Boring. Boring. No. Not right.”

She mumbled to herself as she looked, ignoring the stares of a passing customer who probably thought she was insane.

At last, she found it on Page A7, next to an ad for a real estate company and right above a conclusion to an article that started on page A3.

 _The first success story from last year’s graduating class,_ she thought to herself.

She grabbed four copies of the paper: one for her, one for the office, one for… Liam? And the fourth for…? She wasn’t sure yet. Maybe she would just collect everyone’s first articles. It was only a matter of time until Louis, Josh and Stan, who was currently interning at a News magazine, would have a first professional article under their belts.

And she knew that Zayn and Perrie, even though they didn’t have anything official yet, definitely would soon.

So yeah, Dani decided as she paid for the copies, she would make some kind of scrapbook for her former co-editors.

It could serve as a source of inspiration for everybody else.

And maybe, she was just a little proud that Liam had been the one to kick it all off.


	7. Real Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back! Did you miss me? You probably didn't. It's OK.  
> Well, it's been more than four months since I decided to put this on hiatus, which, trust me, was one of the hardest decisions of my life.  
> But, I think it all worked out, because I feel a lot better about this story than I did before.
> 
> So, to recap the first six chapters:  
> \- Harry's a junior and Niall's a senior. They live in an apartment with Jake and Xander. They had a bonding session. They love each other.  
> \- Louis works for a newspaper near his house.  
> \- Liam is also working for a newspaper, but he's a copy editor. He just got a break and was able to write an article for the paper.  
> \- Zayn is working in one of those painting with wine places. He's still taking photos and using them as inspiration for the paintings he teaches. His dad isn't impressed.  
> \- Harry and Louis got each other off in the shower, and Jake and his parents arrived just as the two of them were cleaning up the mess they made. It was awkward. Jake laughed.  
> \- Louis and Liam want to move out of their parents' houses. Zayn suggested the two of them get an apartment together. Harry wasn't happy.  
> \- Louis' mom is pregnant. He and all of his siblings were shocked. Louis had a minor freakout and Harry calmed him down.  
> \- Niall and Josh just celebrated their one-year anniversary.  
> \- _The Taylor Times_ is up and running. Everybody went and played laser tag. OT5 dominated, of course.  
>  \- Harry's taking six classes this semester. He's stressed out.  
> \- Tyler's still a huge douche. 
> 
> I think that's it. Enjoy!

Jake glared across the table at Harry.

His right eye twitched as he pressed a bag of frozen carrots against his temple.

“I’m sorry,” Harry apologized again.

Xander, who had been leaning against the wall by the table, stifled another laugh.

“All I tried to do was wake you up,” Jake spoke in a low tone.

“I know.”

“You didn’t have to fucking punch me _in the head._ ”

Xander let out a single laugh, clapping a hand over his mouth once he realized how loud it was.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“You told me to wake you up, Harry,” Jake continued.

“I know.”

“So why did you punch me?” he exclaimed.

“I was half-asleep! I told you to leave me alone!”

“Well, I didn’t hear you! Next thing I know, I got a fist flying at my head, and I’m barely awake enough to move, let alone dodge it. Dick.”

“I was tired,” Harry said as a way of explanation.

It was true.

It was already the last weekend of September, so it had been a few weeks since the semester started, and Harry’s six classes, on top of his job at the paper, were starting to catch up to him. Plus, he had midterms coming up. Then there was Halloween, and the following week, he would have to pick his classes for next semester. It was a lot to worry about.

“Clearly.” Jake rolled his eyes. “You went to bed early as hell last night, too.”

“Yeah, it was like, 9,” Xander said. “You slept almost twelve hours, man.”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t really sleep during the week, so I guess my body wanted to catch up on sleep more than go on a run with you, Jake.”

“Wish your body had told you that before I tried to get you out of bed.”

“For the last time, I’m sorry! I’ll buy you whatever you want for your birthday; how about that?”

“Speaking of that,” Xander cut in, thankful for the transition, “what’s going on? We’re still celebrating on Friday, right?”

Jake nodded. “Yeah, we’ll just hang out here. Harry can’t go anywhere anyway, since he’s not 21.”

“I promise we’ll go to AC in February. How about that?”

“Fine. Anyway, I was talking to some friends from home, and they can come up, and we’ll just drink and order pizza or whatever.”

Xander nodded. “Sounds good to me.” 

“I’ll tell Louis, if that’s OK?” Harry wondered.

“Yeah, of course,” Jake answered. “I’ll tell Niall to invite Josh. Maybe he can come up.”

“Wait, can I bring someone, then?” Xander asked seriously. “Or is this like, an all-guys thing?”

“Nah, two of my best friends are girls, and they’ll be there,” Jake replied. “They could probably use some more company.”

“Frankie and Liv?” Harry guessed. He’d only met the girls once in the year that he and Jake had been roommates, but he remembered them well. The two girls had known Jake since the three of them were in elementary school, and were more like siblings than friends.

“Yup,” Jake confirmed. “They’ll be here, and probably Johnny and maybe Mike. We’ll see.”

“It’s gonna be a full house,” Harry said.

“Well yeah, but isn’t that when all the fun happens?”

\---

Louis dropped down in Zayn’s computer chair with a huff. “We’re _never_ going to find an apartment.”

“Louis, it’s not that serious." Liam rolled his eyes as he sat down on Zayn’s bed next to his friend. “This is the first day we’ve really looked. We’ll find somewhere. Besides, Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“I don’t need something built, Liam; I need something that’s affordable and doesn’t have a crying baby next door or a major highway right across the street.”

Zayn shook his head lightly at his friend. When they texted him about twenty minutes ago saying they were at a realtor’s office in the area and wanted to drop by, he’d only been too happy to say ‘yes.’ Now he was rethinking it.

“Where’d you guys go?” he asked.

“Everywhere,” Louis sighed.

“We checked out Collingswood and Haddonfield,” Liam answered. “We went out to Medford for the first one. And the last one was in Moorestown.”

Zayn smiled. “A mere ten minutes away.” 

“With good traffic, yeah.”

“Did you like that one?”

“No." Louis shook his head. “Sorry, man.”

“It’s OK. Did you like any of them, though?”

“Honestly, Haddonfield or Collingswood would be best,” Liam said. “They’re right in the middle of our jobs. Moorestown or Medford would be a longer drive for both of us.”

“So what’re the downsides for them?” Zayn asked.

“Well, the one in Collingswood is small,” Louis said. “Plus, you know how that town has festivals like, every week, so there’d always be people around.”

“But that could be something we get used to,” Liam added.

“And with Haddonfield, it has its own washer and dryer,” Louis continued, “but the rent’s higher.”

“What is it?”

“$1,500 a month.”

Zayn let out a low whistle. “What’s Collingswood’s?”

“$1,250,” Liam replied. “So that’s more manageable. We’d each be paying $125 less a month if we went with that.”

“Plus, it has its own parking garage and the PATCO station is pretty close by.”

“But Haddonfield was a little bigger, so we wouldn’t feel like we’re on top of each other all the time.”

“Was it enough space to justify the extra $250?” Zayn wondered.

Louis rubbed at his temples. He’d never had to put this much consideration into something before.

Even looking at colleges was less stressful.

“I don’t know,” Liam muttered.

He seemed to be as tired as Louis was.

Zayn looked at them sympathetically. “Well, maybe you should make a pro-con list or something, and try to figure it out.”

“That’s a good idea.” Liam nodded.

“I can do that,” Louis agreed. “But not right now. I need to relax a little bit.”

“Same.”

“All right, well let’s get some FIFA going, then,” Zayn suggested.

The boys spent about an hour playing each other.

When Zayn’s mom asked if they were staying for dinner, Louis and Liam figured it was time to head out.

“Keep me posted on everything,” Zayn said as he walked his friends out.

“We will,” Louis said.

“I just hope we can figure this out soon,” Liam stated.

“I’m sure you will. You just have to establish your priorities with this stuff.”

Louis knew his friend was right. He’d have to put his grown-up thinking skills to use when it came to this decision.

He got in his car and drove home.

When he arrived, he checked his phone to see a message from Harry.

**_Harry: You’re still coming up on Friday for Jake’s birthday party, right?_ **

Of course Louis would be there. It would be the first time the two of them saw each other in person since Louis and Liam decided to find an apartment together.

**_Louis: Wouldn’t miss it. I’ll bring my stuff with me to work and I’ll text you when I leave?_ **

**_Harry: Look at you thinking things through. It’s a good look on you._ **

**_Louis: Hey, I can be an adult every now and then._ **

**_Harry: I know, babe. =)_ **

**_Harry: Love you._ **

**_Louis: Love you, too. Menace._ **

**_Harry: You definitely have that one confused._ **

Louis laughed to himself. His boyfriend was right.

He was man enough to admit that out of the two of them, Louis was definitely the bigger pain in the ass.

He got out of his car and walked toward the house. Before he reached the door, though, Dan came quietly rushing out.

“Don’t go in yet,” he whispered to Louis.

“OK…” Louis said slowly. “What’s going on?”

“I have a question to ask you. And you can say ‘no,’ or punch me in the face if you want.”

“What’s happening?” Louis was starting to get a little worried now.

“Shh! Keep your voice down!”

“Well tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“OK! OK.” Dan looked over his shoulder toward the house before seeming to calm down.

“Louis,” he started carefully, “your mom and I have been together for almost two years, and I love her very much.”

“Yeah…”

“And, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, even before I found out she was pregnant. She’s so incredibly sweet and strong and determined, and she’s raised five amazing kids, soon to be six. I can’t see myself being with anybody else but her.”

Louis’ eyes widened slightly.

“Louis… I-“ he sighed. “You’ve been the man of the house for a long time, and I would never want you to feel like I’m taking over or anything like that. But I want to ask your mom to marry me, and I want your blessing to do so. I hope you’ll give me that.”

Louis stared for a moment. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen this coming, but he didn’t expect to be asked.

But he agreed with the man. He couldn’t imagine his mom with anyone else but Dan, so he let a smile break out across his face.

“Louis?”

Instead of responding, Louis just pulled his future stepfather into a hug.

“Of course you have my blessing,” Louis spoke softly.

He could almost feel the nerves melt off Dan’s body as he said that.

“Thank you,” Dan replied quietly.

“You’re welcome.”

They pulled apart, and Louis kept grinning. “So when are you gonna do it?”

“I’m not sure yet.” Dan shook his head. “I haven’t even found a ring; I was too nervous about asking you.”

“About asking me? Why?”

“Your opinion matters a lot to your mom, and vice versa. I couldn’t do it without knowing you’d be OK with it.”

“Damn, you’re a good guy,” Louis said. “Can’t wait til I can call you stepdad.”

Dan couldn’t even say anything back. He was smiling too hard.

\---

Louis walked into Harry’s apartment on Friday night, only to find a guy and girl he’d never seen before standing in the kitchen setting up a table for beer pong. 

“Hi,” he said. “Are you friends of Jake’s?”

“Yeah, hi,” greeted the girl. “I’m Liv, and this is Johnny.”

The guy smiled at him cheerfully.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Louis.”

Their expressions both changed.

“Louis?” the girl repeated.

“Yup.”

“Harry’s boyfriend, right?” Johnny asked.

Louis nodded.

“And Jake’s ex-hookup?” Liv finished.

Louis stilled. The two of them fake-smiled at him until he cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s me, too.”

Liv nodded. “Hmm.”

Without another word, she turned and walked into the living room, calling out, “Harry, your boy’s here.”

Johnny looked after Liv. He gave Louis a quick glance before following her.

Louis let out a sigh before setting the bags he was carrying in his hands down on the counter.

“Hey, babe,” Harry greeted as he walked into the room.

“Hi,” Louis put on a happy face and pecked his boyfriend on the lips. “I’m sorry I’m late.”

“It’s OK,” Harry waved off.

“I stopped at the store for you.”

“For me?”

Louis nodded toward the paper and plastic bags he’d set down.

Harry opened them both, his face brightening. “You got me rum and juice?”

“I didn’t know if you had any, so I figured I’d pick you up some just in case.”

Louis put the bottles in the fridge, along with the six-pack he’d brought for himself.

“You’re too good to me.”

Harry kissed Louis again, this time a little firmer.

“I love _you,_ ” Louis said when they pulled apart.

Harry didn’t seem to notice the inflection as he smiled back. “Love you, too. Now come on, let’s put your bag in my room and I’ll introduce you to everyone. You already met Johnny and Liv. Aren’t they nice?”

“Yeah; a real riot,” Louis muttered as he followed Harry out of the room.

They quickly put Louis’ overnight bag away before joining the rest of the party.

Everyone was sitting around, drink in hand.

Of course, Niall, Jake and Xander were there. He saw Josh sitting on the floor in front of Niall, and Xander had a girl on his lap. Besides Liv and Johnny, there were another guy and girl that Louis assumed were Jake’s other friends from home.

“OK, so Frankie, Mike, Callie, this is my boyfriend, Louis,” Harry introduced.

The three people Louis didn’t actually know yet waved hello, and he returned the gesture.

“Lou, those are Jake’s friends, Frankie and Mike, and over there with Xander is Callie.”

“Nice to meet you guys,” Louis smiled. "Jake, Happy Birthday."

"Thanks, Lou." Jake tipped his cup to the other man. 

“OK, well now that we’re all here,” Liv announced to the room, “who will be the first victims to take on me and Johnny in beer pong?”

“We will!” Niall volunteered immediately. He stood up and pulled Josh to his feet. “And, uh, I think you two will be the only victims around here.”

“You wish,” she scoffed.

The four of them retreated to the kitchen, leaving the rest of them in the living room.

“You guys can sit down, you know,” Frankie called from the couch. “Jake was just telling us how your lovely boyfriend assaulted him last weekend.”

Louis liked her already. He wasn’t sure he could say the same for Jake’s other friends.

“Assault is a heavy word,” Harry denied. “I would say defended myself.”

“No, you definitely assaulted me.” Jake shook his head. “Anyway, we usually go for runs on the weekends, and Harry promised he would go with me on Saturday morning. So, I went in his room and told him to wake up, because it was the time we were supposed to leave, and he was still in bed, knocked out. I started shouting his name and I pulled the blanket back.”

“He’s a much better story teller than you are,” Louis teased his boyfriend.

“Shut up." Harry pouted. He also elbowed Louis in the side.

Louis just laughed.

“And then, I’m starting to get annoyed, because it’s already getting late, so I start shaking him. And about three seconds after I did that, I see his fist flying toward me. I couldn’t completely dodge it, so he only got the side of my face instead of my eye. It still hurt like a bitch.”

“You don’t look like the aggressive type,” Callie noted.

“I’m really not!” Harry insisted. “Just, I was exhausted, and not fully in the right frame of mind. Maybe I was dreaming that I was in a fight or something and I started swinging. I don’t know.”

“Leave my Harold alone,” Louis attempted to help.

“Yeah, he looks grumpy,” Mike noticed. “Louis, he might go for you next.”

“Nah, he’s not tired enough right now,” Jake laughed.

“I need a drink." Harry stood up. He was smiling, though, so at least he wasn’t actually annoyed by the teasing.

Louis tried to follow him, but Harry gently pushed him back down. “You want a beer? I’ll grab one for you.”

“You don’t have to; I can do it.”

“No, I got it.”

“If you’re sure.”

Harry just nodded before leaning down and quickly pecking his lips.

“How long have you two been together?” Frankie wondered once Harry walked away.

“Seven months tomorrow, actually,” Louis answered.

“You’re like, disgustingly cute,” Callie observed from her spot with Xander.

“Yeah, they are,” Xander and Jake groaned at the same time.

“Thanks, guys." Louis blushed. “Way to make me feel weird.”

“Not in a bad way, though,” Mike jumped in. “More like, the way two people who have been together for _ever_ are like.”

Before Louis could respond, he heard yelling from the kitchen.

“Damn it!”

Liv stormed into the room and angrily sat down next to Louis.

Niall and Josh, on the other hand, came walking in happily, hands raised in the air.

“Bow down before greatness,” Niall bragged.

“Never.”

“Liv’s a bit of a sore loser, for anyone who was unsure,” Jake explained.

“He did try to warn you, you know,” Josh grinned.

Johnny came in last, shaking his head. He took a long drink from his cup before muttering, “so close.”

“Any other takers?” Niall asked innocently.

“I’ll go,” Frankie volunteered. As she got up, she turned to mess with Liv. “I mean, it’s just a game. It’s all for fun.”

“Francesca…” Liv warned.

“Olivia,” Frankie threatened right back. “Relax. Come on, Mike. Let’s play.”

The two of them followed Niall and Josh back into the kitchen to set up.

“Do we have cards?” Liv asked. “It’s time to play Kings. I need an excuse to drink more.”

Jake nodded. “H! Grab the cards off the counter!”

“Got them!” Harry yelled back.

A moment later, he returned to the room.

Everyone had already cleared off the coffee table to spread the cards out on.

Louis unfortunately had wound up seated next to Liv still, but he had saved a spot on his other side for his boyfriend.

Harry dropped the cards on the table, and Xander took them out and started shuffling.

“Here you go,” Harry handed a bottle of Corona over to Louis.

“Thank you.”

Harry took a sip from his own cup and Louis got a good look at the flush of his cheeks.

“You took a shot in there, didn’t you?” Louis quietly accused.

Harry shrugged. “Maybe. Or two.”

“Of what?”

“Fireball.”

“Without me? I’m hurt.”

“Everybody knows the rules of this game, right?” Xander questioned while he spread the cards into a circle.

The group nodded.

“We’ll take one later,” Harry promised. “Now shh; the game’s starting.”

Louis rolled his eyes, but looked at the cards anyway.

Xander started out easy, picking a four. Callie was the last to hit the ground, so she took a sip. She picked the next card. Six.

“Chicks,” she announced, even though only she and Liv were the ones who had to drink.

Jake went next.

“Ten. Three fingers up. Never Have I Ever.”

He thought for a moment before saying, “Never have I ever graduated college.”

“Fuck you, too, man,” Louis put down one finger before looking around the circle. “Am I really the only one here who graduated?”

“You and Josh,” Harry answered.

“Oh, right.”

Louis had forgotten about his fellow graduate in the other room.

“My turn,” Johnny said. “Never have I ever kissed a guy.”

Louis, Harry, Jake, Liv and Callie all put down a finger.

“Wait a minute, you have so!” Jake nearly shouted.

“When?” Johnny wanted to know.

“Band camp, the summer before senior year. You and Sean. Don’t deny it!”

“That was on a dare and there was no tongue. It doesn’t count.”

“It does, too! Harry, back me up!”

“It counts,” Harry said apologetically.

While they argued over that, Liv lowly muttered, “Never have I ever cheated on somebody with their roommate.”

Louis stiffened in his seat. After checking to make sure that no one else had heard her, he risked a glance over to her.

Liv was watching him with a smug, hateful look in her eyes, like she was waiting for him to hide his head in shame.

But he didn’t back down. Instead, he returned her glare, even after Johnny changed his Never Have I Ever to, “kissed a guy and liked it.”

“Never have I ever…” Liv rushed out, realizing it was her turn.

Louis felt his lips slightly part in anticipation of what she would actually say to the group.

“… had a penis,” she finished as she turned her gaze back to the circle.

“That’s lame!” Jake complained as he put down another finger.

She just shrugged and sat back against the couch.

Louis looked down at the bottle in his hands for a second before remembering that he had no more fingers left.

Before taking a drink of his beer, he softly spoke, “I’m out.”

\---

The night flew by quickly after that.

Mostly because after Louis drew a three and took another drink, Harry picked an Ace.

He started the Waterfall, meaning Louis was last. And who was the person right before Louis?

Liv.

The bitch took her sweet time finishing her cup, meaning Louis was drinking for a long time.

Once Kings was done, Louis insisted on taking a shot with Harry.

Which turned into taking a shot with Niall and one with Josh, for good measure.

He was drunk before midnight.

“Baby!” Louis hissed to his boyfriend. “You didn’t tell me you had the balcony outside the window!”

Everyone was back in the living room by now, but some of the guys were playing FIFA.

Fortunately for Louis, that meant that nobody was paying attention to how much of an idiot he was being.

“Yeah, Lou; must’ve slipped my mind.”

Harry walked over to Louis, who was standing by the window.

“Let’s go out on it,” Louis suggested.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I could get in trouble for it, and you could break an ankle or something.”

“I will not.” Louis pouted.

“You’re cute when you’re drunk.”

“Not drunk.”

“Pretty drunk. Did you eat before you came up here?”

“Of course I did.”

“When?” Harry smirked.

“Lunch time.”

“Lou!”

“I definitely had food here.”

"Pizza?"

"I don't remember."

“Chips?”

“Yeah, doesn’t that count?” Louis slurred.

“No.” Harry shook his head. He reached down and pulled the beer bottle still clutched loosely in Louis' hand.

“Hey,” Louis protested as Harry finished it off. “That was rude.”

“Come to bed.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re drunk.”

“So?”

“So…” Harry took a step toward his boyfriend, crowding him more toward the wall. “You get super cuddly when you’re drunk, and I’ve missed that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“What else did you miss?”

“You have a room; use it,” Niall called out as he scored a goal on Josh.

“Fuck off, Irish,” Louis shot back.

And then he noticed something.

Of course, Liv was giving him a dirty look. But then she checked what Johnny was doing, and Louis was surprised to see Johnny carefully watching Jake, who was suddenly very interested in playing with his phone.

“I’m just saying.” Niall winked.

“Come on, babe.” Harry led Louis to the bathroom so they could brush their teeth.

Before they made it down the hallway, Louis snuck a glance over his shoulder to see Jake still looking down.

\---

Louis wiped at his mouth as he walked out of the bathroom later that night.

After Harry had managed to get him to brush his teeth and wash his face, the two of them had gone to Harry’s room to lie down.

Louis didn’t remember anything past pulling off his T-shirt and jeans.

But then, nature called. Luckily, he hadn’t been drunk enough to forget to get out of the bed to get sick, and he’d been able to stumble down to the bathroom in time.

In the living room, Frankie and Mike were sound asleep, buried under blankets in their designated sleeping spots.

The wall clock said it was after three in the morning. As Louis walked down the hallway, he heard voices coming from Jake’s room, which was right next to Harry’s.

He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but since the door was cracked open, it was practically an invitation to listen.

That was his story and he was sticking to it.

“Just back off, all right? I told you it’s fine,” Louis heard Jake saying.

“Johnny, I told you he would say that,” Liv stated.

Johnny sighed. “J, just listen-“

“There’s nothing to listen to!” Jake protested.

“You can’t hide anything from us,” Johnny replied. “We’ve known you way too long for that bullshit.”

Louis could practically hear Jake rolling his eyes from where he stood.

“Whatever it was that made you think I have feelings for him, just forget it.”

“You don’t know how you look at him,” Liv said.

“And how do I look at him?” Jake wondered.

“Your eyes are just so full of longing. Like you want to be the one hugging and kissing him. Like you’re wondering what it would be like to be dating him. Like you want to know how your life would be different if he didn’t fall for Harry instead.”

Louis paused.

They were talking about him?

“I don’t still like Louis,” Jake insisted. “He and Harry are together, and I’m friends with both of them. Yeah, me and Louis have a past, but it’s behind us now.”

“Really? So when the two of them looked like they were two seconds from fucking each other in front of everyone, that didn’t bother you?”

“They weren’t-“

“Or how about each time they kissed? Which was a lot. That didn’t make you upset?”

“Just stop,” Jake pleaded. “Seriously, back off. There are no more feelings between us any more. That’s all there is to it.”

“We just don’t want you to get hurt,” Johnny told him.

“That’s all there is to it,” Jake repeated, this time, a little more forcefully. “I appreciate you guys looking out for me, I really do; but I don’t need it. I’m fine. I swear.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m totally sure.”

Louis decided he’d heard enough, even though he wasn’t sure he was totally convinced.

He walked into Harry’s room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

He dropped his head back, looking up at the ceiling.

Did Jake still have feelings for him? He’d always hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but last year when everything happened, there’d been a little nag in the back of his mind saying that it could.

It was all too easy before, making sure Jake was OK with Louis and Harry being together.

He used to think it was because he and Jake were never serious, so it was OK for them to end what they had going on. Maybe it was actually because Jake was hiding his true feelings.

If it was true, and Johnny and Liv had a reason to be worried, then Louis was in trouble.

\---

Louis woke up the next morning to feel fingers carding through his hair.

He groaned softly, feeling the full effects of his hangover.

“Good morning,” Harry spoke softly.

“Morning,” Louis returned. He could hear how rough his voice sounded.

He was glad it was only Saturday, and he didn’t have work tomorrow.

“Now, that you’re up, I’m gonna get you some ibuprofen.”

Harry started to move out of the bed, but Louis wouldn’t let him.

“Not yet. Cuddle me for a little bit first.”

Harry wordlessly returned to his spot, clutching Louis to his chest.

They lay there quietly and Harry continued running his fingers through Louis’ hair.

“Dan’s proposing to my mom,” Louis whispered.

“He is? When?” Harry asked excitedly.

“I don’t know yet. But he asked me the other day after I got home from looking at apartments.”

“He asked you? Like, your permission?”

“More like, he wanted my blessing to do it. He said that I’ve been the man of the house for a long time, and he didn’t want to step on any toes. It was nice, I guess.”

“That’s really sweet,” Harry agreed. “Who knew he was so old-fashioned?”

Louis smiled. “I didn’t, but it suits him.”

“So what else? What does the ring look like? What did the girls say? Oh, my God, there’s gonna be a wedding; I can’t believe it. Flowers and suits and dresses and cake testings and finding a venue-“

“Harry, relax." Louis laughed quietly. “Nothing’s even happened yet. Stop getting yourself all riled up.”

“Sorry, I can’t help it. I haven’t been to a wedding since my mom and Robin’s.”

“And clearly you love them.”

“Clearly.”

“Well, to answer your questions: he doesn’t have a ring yet; the girls don’t know yet, because he wants to have a ring to show them before he tells them; and yes, there will definitely be a wedding to plan because my mom will absolutely say ‘yes.’ There’s no doubt in my mind.”

“And you’re happy with it all, right?”

“Of course I am. Dan said he couldn’t see himself being with anybody else but my mom, and I believe him. Plus, I agree: the two of them are really good together, and I think Dan will be a good dad to the new baby. It all fits.”

“I’m glad you’re happy,” Harry admitted.

Louis didn’t move his head to see the look on Harry’s face, but he assumed his boyfriend had a wide smile on it.

“I’m very happy,” Louis confessed. “I’ve got you and my family and my friends and my job. Don’t think I could ask for anything else, really.”

Harry dipped his head to kiss the top of Louis’.

“Except ibuprofen.”

“On it.” Harry nodded.

This time, he actually did get out of bed.

Louis let out a deep sigh once Harry was out of the room.

Bits of the previous night were coming back to him, but nothing was stronger than the conversation he’d overheard in Jake’s room.

Out of all the things that happened last night, that was the only memory he had that he seriously wished was just part of a terrible nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, funny story. The first 700 words of this chapter sat in a document on my computer for like, all of June. And then I went and wrote the last 4,100 words over Fourth of July weekend. Hope it didn't suck!  
> I'm glad to be back.  
> As usual, chapters will be posted ASAP/when they're ready, but my goal is at least once a week. However, if it takes more than a week between updates, I apologize now!  
> And, I'm doing all that I can to not go on hiatus again (ever)! It hurt me more than it hurt you, probably.  
> I have the next 10 or so chapters loosely planned out, I just need to write them! And don't worry, there's plenty of drama (but also happy moments) coming up.  
> 


	8. A Familiar Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aiden's back! Sort of.  
> Didn't we all miss him?

Dani groaned as the phone rang again.

It was only six on Wednesday night, but already it seemed like the phone had rung every five minutes since she’d arrived at the office a few hours ago.

Everybody had their heads down, revising and rereading the articles they had on their pages, and the only noise that could be heard was the quiet music coming from the Sports Desk.

This week, they had been, as Higgins and Teasdale had kindly put it, “fortunate to have enough ads for a sixteen-page issue.”

No one else was impressed.

So now, Dani was sitting with an Opinion page in front of her, and out of the corner of her eye, could see Cher texting Louis again asking for advice.

Dani was glad that at least the new editors could ask their former editors for help. The newbies hadn’t been around for the single sixteen-page issue last year. They had only worked on a few issues so far this year; they would need all the assistance they could get.

Hurley answered the phone, showing a clear sign of relief at who it was on the other side of the line.

Dani’s phone went off in her pocket, and she slipped it out to quickly check it. It was a text from Liam.

**_Liam: How busy are you?_ **

**_Dani: Is that a real question?_ **

**_Liam: =)_ **

**_Liam: Did you eat dinner yet?_ **

**_Dani: Not yet. I meant to run out to Trailblazer’s, but I haven’t had time yet. Plus, El’s not here, and won’t be back for a while._ **

**_Liam: Good._ **

Dani furrowed her brow at the phone. Now that Liam mentioned it, she _was_ kind of hungry. She decided to finish reading this page and then run out to grab food really quick.

The printer started going off again.

“Dani, can you read this over for me?” Casey wondered as she grabbed one of the Sports pages.

Dani wished she could ask Eleanor to do it, but her Managing Editor was out with Harry at the art gallery, taking pictures and interviewing students whose paintings were being featured this month. Eleanor had volunteered to help out and write an article since the other editors had the extra pages to fill.

“Yeah, bring it over,” Dani sighed instead.

She placed the page under the Opinion one, and finished reading.

Twenty minutes later, when her stomach was starting to really growl, she heard the outside door open.

 _Thank God,_ she thought to herself. _El’s back._

The office door opened a moment later, and in stepped Liam.

“Hey, everybody,” he called out to everyone.

“Hey, Liam,” some of them greeted.

Niall jumped up and nearly tackled his former roommate in a hug. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Hi, Niall,” Liam laughed. “You can let go of me now.”

“Never. Ooh, what’s in the bag?”

“Food.”

“What’d you bring me? I ate a little bit ago, but since you went out of your way-“

“It’s not for you, Ni. It’s for Dani.”

“Oh.” Niall pouted. “Well fine, then.”

The blonde returned to his seat, where Casey was clearly judging him.

“You brought me food?” Dani asked in surprise.

“Of course I did.” Liam shrugged. He went to sit at the table. “I remember how stressful the sixteen-pager was last year. I figured you wouldn’t eat.”

“You’re so sweet. Here, come sit in El’s seat; she won’t need it.”

Liam sat down and started setting up the food. It was from Angelo’s: Dani’s favorite chicken parm sandwich, Liam’s bacon cheesesteak and an order of fries for them to share.

“I still have to read, though,” Dani said after she took her first bite.

“I know. But at least you’re eating. Do you want any help?”

“If I didn’t have a mouth full of food right now, I would kiss you.”

“Raincheck?” Liam suggested.

Dani nodded enthusiastically before grabbing the new Entertainment page for her boyfriend.

The two of them read over pages side-by-side, reminiscent of every Wednesday night last year, except their seats were switched.

“You’re the best boyfriend, ever; you know that?” Dani asked quietly as she put her initials at the top of the page.

“I know,” Liam smiled. “Doesn’t hurt to hear it all the time, though.”

\---

Harry woke up late on Saturday morning at home. It was his mom’s birthday, and Gemma had wanted to surprise her. Anne thought that the only surprise was Harry coming home for the weekend, but little did she know that her daughter had arranged to have a party later that night.

He knew he had a long day ahead of him, so he snuggled down under his blanket, fully hoping that he could sleep a little while longer.

No such luck.

Gemma came bursting into his room thirty seconds later.

“How did you know I was awake?” he asked.

“I didn’t.” His sister shrugged. “But Mom and Robin just left to go eat, so I figured it was time for you to be awake whether you wanted to be or not.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Get dressed and meet me downstairs. I want to go over today’s schedule with you.”

She left his room as quickly as she came in, and Harry sighed into his pillow before following his sister’s instructions. He’d been on the wrong side of Gemma’s stress-fueled rage too many times to test her today.

He took a quick shower before throwing on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and fixing his hair.

Harry made his way downstairs to find Gemma in the kitchen with a checklist in hand.

This wouldn’t be good.

“OK, what’s on the To-Do list?” he asked as he opened the fridge to see what he wanted for breakfast.

“OK, well Chloe’s mom already bought the balloons and streamers and other decorations. We’re going over there in like, an hour, to get set up. I ordered the cake on Thursday, so it’s ready to be picked up today any time after 2. I’ll need you to get that for me. Everybody was told to be at Chloe’s house by 6:30, because Mom is going over there at 7.”

“So I’ll get the cake no later than 6?”

“That’s fine.” Gemma nodded. “Now, Chloe’s mom is making some side dishes, and I bought everything so you can make that pasta thing you wanted to cook. Remember, you need to make enough for about twenty-five people. Are you sure you can do it?”

“No problem,” Harry said. “I’ll chop all the vegetables before we go over to Chloe’s, and when we get there, I’ll start boiling pasta. In between mixing everything in, I’ll help hang streamers or something.”

“Works for me. OK, well eat something, and then start prepping. I’ll call Chloe and find out if there’s anything else we need.”

Harry made a batch of pancakes and some scrambled eggs to eat and scarfed them down faster than he thought possible.

After he finished, he cleared away his plate and found the vegetables he needed in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator. He washed his hands before opening the plastic bag and rinsing off the bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, carrots and zucchini.

He switched on the radio, hearing the sounds of his familiar hometown station fill the room before he got to work.

Harry chopped up the vegetables, storing them all in separate containers when he was done with them. After he finished that task, he opened the fridge again and pulled out mozzarella cheese Gemma had also bought for him.

He followed the same procedure, dicing up the cheese so that it could be thrown in with the pasta later.

“You almost ready?” Gemma wondered as she came back into the room.

Harry nodded. “I think so. Let me just finish packing all of this up. Can you grab the olive oil, vinegar and the little red bottle that says Basil Garlic for me?”

Gemma turned to the counter and grabbed the desired ingredients. She handed them to Harry.

He thanked her before asking, “Do we need to get anything else?”

“No, Chloe said they had everything else ready; they’re just waiting for us to get there so we can figure out how to decorate.”

“Perfect. OK. Let’s go.”

The two of them packed all of the food containers and other ingredients into a large canvas tote bag before getting into their separate cars and making the five-minute drive over to Chloe’s house.

Once they arrived, they walked in the front door without knocking. The Styles kids and the Burcham kids had grown up together; they were practically all one family.

“Hello!” Gemma called out.

Harry walked into the kitchen and started unpacking his bag. He had to move some other containers around in the fridge to make room for his own.

“What are you making today, Harry?” Chloe asked, walking into the kitchen.

“Basil and garlic vegetable pasta. It’s pretty simple, but Mom loves it, so…”

“Sounds good. Need any help with it?”

“Nah, most of the work is already done,” Harry replied. “Mostly, I just have to boil the pasta, and add the oils and vegetables. Shouldn’t take too long.”

“Good, because we need your help hanging streamers. You’re the tallest one here.”

“Always using me for my height, Chlo,” Harry laughed.

“You know it. Now come on, let’s get to work. Gemma will kill us if she finds us standing around, doing nothing.”

Knowing it was true, Harry closed the refrigerator door and walked into the living room.

They spent the next hour or so hanging streamers and blowing up balloons. More than once, they had to stop because Harry almost fell off a chair trying to tape a streamer in _just the right spot._

“OK, I’ll go pick up the big, fancy, Happy Birthday balloons from the party store,” Gemma announced once they felt satisfied with the current layout. “Harry, can you start cooking?”

“I’ll go with you,” Chloe’s mom, Louise, said to Gemma. “It’ll be easier to get the balloons home with a van.”

Gemma nodded at the suggestion.

“I’ll check the patio and make sure all of the lamps have gas in them, so we don’t have to worry about it later,” Chloe added. “And I’ll put my car in the garage so we have more room in the driveway.”

“We make such a good team,” Gemma complimented. “And break!”

The four of them set out on their assigned tasks.

Harry personally thought his was the easiest. All he had to do was cook – which he loved to do anyway – some pasta and vegetables that he knew his mom would love.

When Harry was about halfway done, Chloe popped her head into the kitchen and said, “I’m gonna get a shower and get ready. Don’t burn my house down.”

“After all the work we did getting it set up, I wouldn’t dare. Maybe next time.”

“That’s reassuring, Harry. Really.”

He shrugged, but continued cooking.

By the time he was finished all the pasta he needed to make, and started mixing in his oil-vinegar-basil-garlic combination, Gemma and Louise were returning from the store.

They started tying the balloons on everything: the staircase, the backs of the kitchen chairs. They also took them outside, tying them to the patio chairs.

Harry packed up the food for later and cleaned up the kitchen.

“Gem!” he yelled outside.

His sister came in and asked what he wanted.

“We should go home and get ready; at least make an appearance with mom before tonight.”

“OK. Are you done?”

“Yeah. Ready when you are.”

The siblings left the house, saying goodbye to Louise and shouting down the hall to Chloe that they would be back later.

They returned to their house, walking into the living room to find their mom and Robin laughing about something on the couch.

“Happy Birthday!” they shouted.

“Thank you!” Anne grinned. “I got your cards this morning before I left. You two are so sweet.”

“You’re welcome, Mom,” Harry replied.

“Since you’re both home, let’s watch a movie.”

“Oh,” they both said. They’d gone over a game plan before they walked in the house.

“I’m actually just here to get ready; I have plans with Chloe tonight,” Gemma partially lied.

“Yeah, I have plans with Niall in the city,” Harry added. “I have to get ready, too.”

“Oh.” Anne pouted. “Well, OK, then. We can hang out tomorrow?”

“Sounds good. Love you, Mom.” Gemma kissed her mother on the cheek before getting up and walking toward the steps.

“Yeah, Happy Birthday,” Harry added before also kissing her on the cheek and following his sister.

Robin hid his smirk at the disappointed look on his wife’s face.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” he said, “at least we’ll see Louise tonight. That’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Gemma and Harry smiled at each other at the top of the stairs, their hands extended toward each other to meet in a fist bump.

“Well played, sis,” Harry complimented.

“Could say the same about you, little brother,” Gemma returned. “Plans with Niall in the city. Yeah, right.”

Harry and Gemma took their time getting ready before heading back over to Chloe’s house.

“See ya later, Mom,” they called out as they walked back through the front door.

“Bye; love you,” she returned, still sounding a bit sad.

Robin gave them a wink before they left.

Back at the Burchams’ house, they went over everything, making sure that everything was set up.

Around 5:30, Harry decided to go pick up the cake.

He arrived at the supermarket and walked straight back to the bakery.

“Hi, I need to pick up an order for Styles,” he told the girl in a red apron behind the counter. “It’s for a birthday; it should say either ‘Happy Birthday Anne’ or 'Happy Birthday Mom.'”

She nodded and moved to the freezer to check.

She quickly brought it back and opened it for him to expect.

It was a marble cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. There was a purple border around the cake with red and pink flowers at each corner. Sure enough, the cake did say ‘Happy Birthday Mom’ in pink and purple writing, and there was a golden yellow crown above it.

“It’s perfect; thank you so much.”

He took the cake up to the checkout lane and got in line behind a woman who was just swiping her card. He put the cake down and pulled out his wallet.

“Aiden, when you’re done, you can take your break!”

Harry looked up at the announcement from the unknown voice before looking behind the register and seeing Aiden switching off the light to his lane.

_Shit._

Harry thought about grabbing the cake and jumping out of line to go somewhere else. But then Aiden looked and he and Harry made eye contact.

_Too late._

Harry bit his lower lip and took a deep breath, wishing more than anything that someone would swoop in and save him from the incredibly uncomfortable moment that was just waiting for him.

The woman in front of him completed her purchase and rolled her cart away.

Aiden pushed the button under his till and brought the cake closer to him so he could scan it.

“Hey, Aiden,” Harry said quietly as he stepped up.

“Hey.”

Aiden looked about as excited to be there as Harry felt: not at all.

“I- I didn’t know you worked here.”

“Yeah, I started over the summer. Needed more money for school.”

“Oh.”

“Yup,” Aiden replied. He scanned the barcode on the box holding the cake. “$49.99.”

Harry nodded quickly and pulled out his wallet.

“So how’s your boyfriend?”

“Good,” Harry answered. “Louis’ good.”

Aiden scoffed. “Of course you’re with Louis. And of course he’s good. You two were just perfect together, weren’t you?”

Harry pressed his lips together as he swiped his debit card and punched in his pin.

“Aiden, I am sorry…”

“You should be. You know, I didn’t even tell my family about what really happened between us? I was too embarrassed by it all, to be honest. I just said that we didn’t work out. And you know what my mom said to me?”

Harry shook his head slowly.

“She said it was a shame, because you were such a good guy. If only she knew, right?”

He turned and ripped the receipt out of the printer and dropped it on the cake box.

“Have a good day, Harry. Maybe I’ll tell my mom you’re in town this weekend so she can stop over and say ‘hi.’ You know, since she seems to love you so much.”

Aiden rolled his eyes before clocking out and walking away.

Harry watched as his ex-boyfriend left, not sure if he wanted Aiden to turn around and give him one last look or not.

Aiden made that decision for him, as he walked all the way to the back of the store without a glance, as if nothing had even happened.

He deeply sighed before putting his wallet and receipt in his pocket and picking up the cake. He made his way out to his car and drove the familiar way back to Chloe’s house.

“I’m back!” he yelled out when he walked through the front door.

He did his best to act as if nothing out of the usual had occurred.

“Good, you can put it over here, H,” Chloe said from the kitchen. She pointed to an empty spot on the island counter. He placed the box down and opened it up so everybody could see.

“She’ll love it,” Louise enthused. “It’s perfect.”

“Yeah, Gem, you did a great job picking this one,” Chloe complimented.

“Thank you.”

Harry hadn’t even noticed his older sister standing in the kitchen.

But she had certainly seen the sad look on her younger brother’s face.

“Will you excuse us for a second? I need to talk to Harry about something.”

Chloe and her mom just nodded and Gemma grabbed Harry’s arm and pulled him down the hall.

“Spill,” she ordered, pulling Harry into Chloe’s room and shutting the door behind them.

“Nothing to spill.” Harry shook his head. “What else needs to be done? The guests will be arriving soon.”

Gemma crossed her arms in front of her chest and put on a stern expression.

Harry knew he wasn’t getting off that easy.

“OK, I just… I ran into Aiden at the store when I was paying for the cake.”

A look of remembrance flashed across her face.

“Shit,” she swore. “I totally forgot he worked there now. I’m so sorry, Harry.”

“It’s not your fault. Really, I’m not mad or anything.”

“Well what happened? And don’t you dare say ‘nothing.’ You wouldn’t look this upset if nothing happened.”

Harry considered his next words carefully. “Gem, do you think I’m a shitty person?”

She looked at him with a clearly confused look in her eyes. “All right, I’ll play along,” she eventually muttered. “No, Harry, I don’t think you’re a shitty person.”

Then the protective, older sister personality came out. “Wait, why?” she demanded. “Did Aiden call you a shitty person? Is that what’s happening? Because I’ll kill him. I’ll drive over and slash his tires right now or something.”

“No, Gem, stop; he didn’t call me a shitty person. At least, not in those exact words.”

“Well what exact words did he use?”

Harry described the entire encounter to her.

“So basically,” Gemma summarized, “he’s pissed that you’ve moved on and he most likely hasn’t yet?”

“I guess?”

“Well, look; Harry, you’re not a shitty person. It was a shitty situation. For all four of you. It just sucked. And, OK, I’ll be honest: I wish that it had all been handled differently, but you know what? At the end of the day, you did what was best for you, and so did Louis. You both got out of relationships that weren’t fulfilling and into one that was. And I’m very glad that you did. I like Louis, too. Aiden was always a bit whiny for me.”

Harry laughed. “Since when?”

“Since always. I just didn’t want to tell you.”

“You know, Louis said something similar. Way back when, he told me to get back with Aiden because he thought it was what I wanted to hear.”

“Because we love you.”

“I got it right eventually.”

“You sure did.” Gemma smiled. “Now, forget about Aiden. Tonight’s about Mom and making sure she’s surprised and knows that we’re the best kids on the planet.”

Later that night, when Anne entered the house and screamed as everyone yelled “Surprise!” those were the exact words that she said.

\---

It was a surprisingly warm day for October, so Zayn invited Perrie over to his uncle’s house to go swimming on Sunday.

“So, I found an internship at an art gallery that I want to apply for,” Zayn was telling his girlfriend.

“That’s great! Where is it?”

“It’s out in Medford, so it would be about a half hour drive each way. So… I don’t know. We’ll see.”

“Would you still keep your job at Painting with a Twist?” Perrie wondered.

“Yeah, definitely. I’m starting to really get the hang of it. And I like all my coworkers. Plus, I get to paint and get paid for it, so that’s cool.”

“Well, they would be lucky to have you,” Perrie complimented.

“Thank you.”

The two of them continued to float on the water for a little while before Perrie cleared her throat.

“Um, so since you told me something, I think I can tell you something.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, remember how I said that I might start looking into grad schools?”

“Yeah.”

Zayn did remember the comment from Perrie. It had happened at his graduation party a few months ago. But Perrie hadn’t really mentioned it since, so Zayn didn’t know it was still a possibility.

“Did you find one you really like?”

“Well, I’m trying not to get attached to a specific one, you know? Just in case I don’t get in.”

“You have your heart set on NYU, don’t you?” Zayn smiled.

“Maybe. But I’ve been looking for other ones, too.”

“When’s the NYU deadline?”

“January 4,” Perrie answered. “So, I still have plenty of time, but I need to decide if it’s what I really want.”

“I think you should go for it. I mean, the worst that can happen is you don’t get in, but you could go somewhere else.”

“You’re being so supportive about this. I should’ve talked to you about it sooner.”

“Why didn’t you?” Zayn asked curiously.

“I don’t know… Just- You’re not worried about our relationship? Like, what would happen if I wasn’t around all the time?”

Zayn stilled. He hadn’t even thought about it, to be honest. But if Perrie went to NYU, she would be in… Well, New York. And he would be here.

He couldn’t even find a job here, and the pool of applicants for art galleries was much smaller. What were the chances he would get hired somewhere as exclusive as New York?

And that was another thing. Would he want to move to New York to be with Perrie? They hadn’t even been together a full year yet. Was it worth completely uprooting his life?

But, what if he didn’t move, and then they broke up because of the distance?

Or, what if Zayn got ready to move, got a job and then they broke up? What would he do then?

Of course, there was always the possibility that Perrie wouldn’t get into NYU and would stay local. Then all of this worry would be for nothing.

“I mean, I thought about it for a second,” Perrie continued, “but if Harry and Louis and Niall and Josh can handle it, I think we can, too. You know?”

“Absolutely,” Zayn replied, only hesitating for a second. “I mean, we can handle whatever comes our way.”

Perrie beamed at his response.

Zayn was just glad his voice was more convincing than his mind was.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be up next week!


	9. Midterm Relief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? There's smut in this chapter! And it's a new kind of smut that I've never written before, so I'm hoping it's OK.  
> You already know who it's between.

“OK, so I have to admit something,” Jay told Louis at dinner on Monday night.

“I figured there was something going on,” Louis confessed. “I mean, you don’t just randomly invite me out for pizza, just the two of us. Ever.”

“Sorry for being super obvious.”

“It’s OK... Right? Everything is OK?”

“Yeah, everything is fine; I promise.”

Louis nodded before taking a bite of his food.

“So… You like Dan, right?”

Louis grinned. “It’s a little late to be asking me that, isn’t it?” 

“Be serious, please?”

Louis finished chewing and put his pizza down on the plate. He folded his hands in front of him, leaning slightly forward. “I’m listening.”

Jay rolled her eyes and looked away for a moment. She couldn’t hide her smile, though.

“Anyway… Do you like Dan?” Jay asked. 

“Of course. I think he’s good for you.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. And I think he’ll be a good dad to the baby, too. You know, the girls and I don’t really get to see Dad as much as we used to, or as much as we’d like, but Dan has stepped up to the plate to help out. A lot, actually. I think he’s in this for the long haul.”

He couldn’t very well tell his mother that Dan had recently started ring shopping, and that Louis had promised to go along with him if he ever needed a second opinion. But, he would let her know as much as he could.

“So, would you be OK if I asked Dan to move in?”

Louis smiled. Wow, these two couldn’t be more similar if they tried. First, Dan asked Louis’ blessing to propose to Jay. And now Jay was asking for permission to have Dan move in with the family.

It was the only logical step, if Louis was being honest. It would be much easier for Dan to live with Jay since they were raising the baby together.

“Louis?” Jay prodded, since her son wasn’t actually saying anything.

“Of course it’s OK for Dan to move in,” Louis replied, sitting back in his seat. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I don’t know, just… I don’t want you to think I’m replacing your dad or something.”

 _Jesus, the two of them,_ Louis thought to himself.

“You’re not replacing Dad.” Louis shook his head. “You guys got divorced. And yeah, I had trouble with it at first, but you two are much happier apart now. Way happier than you were those last couple of months. Dad’s dating again, and you and Dan are having a baby. Everything’s good. I swear.”

“OK.” Jay smiled. “Good. I’ll talk to the girls then.”

“Let me know when they say it’s OK.”

“I will.”

Louis returned to his pizza.

His mom was happy. His sisters would be thrilled; he was sure of that.

Dan would be happy, as Louis knew he would move in. It’s not like he had a reason to say 'no.'

Louis was content for the moment.

He just had one question, though.

Since Dan would be moving into their house, what would he be doing with his apartment?

\---

Harry was extremely grateful for Tuesdays. He only had two classes in the morning, so he was done for the day by 11:15.

But today was unbelievably valuable, as he needed the day to study.

He and Niall had suffered through their Communication Law midterm last night, and he’d – thankfully – breezed through his Communication Ethics one earlier this morning. But he still had four more to get through.

Luckily, though, his paper for Feature Writing was almost done, and that wasn’t due until Friday.

His presentation for his Speech midterm on Thursday was finished, but he still needed to present it, plus finish studying for Understanding Lit the next afternoon, and Art Appreciation on Friday morning.

With a sigh, he opened his Lit notebook and started reading about critiquing.

An hour later, Jake popped his head in and asked if Harry wanted to go to the gym with him.

“Nah, man; I’m good. Definitely this weekend.”

“OK.” Jake nodded. “Don’t worry yourself too much, Harry, all right?”

“Little late for that.” Harry grinned. “I do appreciate the concern, though.”

“Any time.”

Jake left a few minutes later, and Harry was left with an empty apartment.

Niall was at the computer lab, working on his project for Advanced Publication Design, and Xander was out with Callie.

When he started to feel his eyes go blurry, he shut his notebook and started rubbing them.

What he really wanted to do was go to sleep, but that was definitely not an option at the moment.

He saw that it was only 8:30, so he opened his computer and pulled up Skype.

Fortunately, Louis was available, so he made a call to him.

A minute later, his boyfriend answered, his smiling face taking up the whole screen.

Louis grinned. “Hi, babe.” 

“Hey, Lou.”

“Uh-oh. What’s the face?”

“No face,” Harry said.

“Yes, face. What’s the matter?”

Harry shrugged.

“That doesn’t help me. How are your midterms going?”

“Fine, I guess.” Harry yawned. “Just tired.”

“You’re always tired. Are you taking a break from studying? You know, they say breaks are actually good for you from time to time.”

“Yeah, well those people probably don’t have four midterms over the next three days.”

“Sorry, baby.”

“Not your fault.”

“I wish I could make you feel better, though.”

“Me, too.” Harry pouted.

“Don’t pout, babe.”

“Can’t help it. I miss you.”

“I miss you, too. Maybe I can come up this- No, never mind. I might be going ring shopping with Dan.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe next weekend?”

"Maybe. I have to start getting ready for course selection. Plus, I have another speech the week after to prepare for.”

“Oh,” Louis sighed.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Louis repeated Harry’s earlier words back to him. "We'll just see each other on Halloween."

"Yes! And I'm excited. I've never been to [Creamy Acres](http://www.nightofterror.com/home/attractions) before."

This year, since Zayn wasn't having his annual Halloween party, Niall had decided that they could all go to Creamy Acres and get scared properly in all of the haunted houses and in the haunted maze. 

"You'll love it," Louis told him. "I used to go all the time when I was younger. I haven't been back in a while, though."

"You know I'm gonna get scared, though. Right?"

"Of course I know that. You can just hide behind me if you do."

"Oh, yeah? Will you be my big, strong protector?"

"Definitely. I'm the only one  _big_ enough for that job."

Harry just smiled at his boyfriend, who was suddenly lighting up like a Christmas tree.

“Hey, where are the guys, anyway? It seems awfully quiet over there.”

“Out. Jake went to the gym a little bit ago. Xander is out with Callie, who may or may not be his new girlfriend? I’m not sure. And Niall’s at the J Lab, working on one of his midterms.”

“So you’re alone?” Louis questioned.

“Yeah. Wish you were here.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Harry whined.

“What would you do if I was there?”

“I’d take a nap with you.”

“You would not.”

“Of course I would. I already told you I’m tired.”

“Well if I was there right now,” Louis started, “I’d fuck you.”

“Louis!”

“What?”

“Be serious.”

“I am being serious. You don’t know how hot you look right now.”

Harry shook his head, but couldn’t deny that Louis' comment had put some ideas into his head.

“Your turn. Seriously, what would you do if I was there right now?”

Harry grinned. “I think I’d ride you,” he said after some consideration.

“Would you now?”

“Yeah. I haven’t done that in a while.”

“What would we do first, though?”

“Um,” Harry thought out loud, getting comfortable in his seat, “I think you’d suck me off a little bit first.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you would. You’d get down on your knees in front of me and use your mouth to get me off. You’d run your tongue all the way up my cock and then you’d suck on the head.”

“Go on.”

“And, you would… be swirling your tongue around me as you bob your head up and down. When you feel comfortable, you’d hollow out your cheeks and stare up at me like you know I like. And I wouldn’t be able to handle it, so I’d throw my head back.”

“Where would my hands be?” Louis wanted to know.

Harry shifted in his seat. “Um, one hand would be wrapped around your dick, just lightly stroking. You wouldn’t be tugging at it or anything, just getting yourself warmed up. And the other hand is… squeezing my cock, because I don’t want to come yet.”

“You don’t?”

“No, I want to come when you’re inside me: when I’m bouncing up and down on your thick cock, because it always fills me up just right.”

“And where are your hands?”

“In your hair,” Harry answered immediately. He was starting to feel a little warm. “Because I’m holding on to your head because I just started fucking your mouth. And when I do that, you start moving the hand around your cock just a little faster.”

“Yeah?” Harry could see through the monitor that Louis was starting to palm at his crotch.

He was glad to see that his boyfriend was just as affected as he was.

“So I look down and you’re starting to drip a little bit, and there’s a little wet spot at the front of your briefs. I just want to taste it.”

“Mm-hmm,” Louis nodded, encouraging Harry to keep going.

“So, I pull you off, and I pull your shirt off.”

Louis followed the action, dropping his T-shirt on the floor. He also kicked off the jeans he was wearing. Harry decided he should be shirtless, too, so he pulled his henley over his head and threw it behind him.

“Then I get you to your feet in front of me, and I get you totally naked. Before you can do anything, I get down and suck your fat cock into my mouth, just to make sure you’re totally hard.”

“Then what, baby?” Louis asked as he shifted out of his briefs.

“Then I pull off and push your legs apart so I can suck a mark onto your thigh.”

“Which one?”

“Right.”

“Thank God.”

“Then, I start kissing right up your body. I start with the tip of your cock, then right up your stomach and across your chest. When I get to your throat, I start at one side of your neck and work my way across, all the way to that spot at the bottom of your jaw that really gets you going. And I start sucking.”

“How hard, baby?”

“Hard enough to get a big, purple, blotchy mark right there.”

“Jesus,” Louis moaned. He dropped his head a little bit, like he was holding his noises in.

“And then I kiss you, because I just can’t hold back anymore. And right away, you get your tongue in my mouth. Then you’re pushing me toward the bed.”

They look at each other then, both breathing a little heavy.

Louis had a hand wrapped around his dick, and Harry was doing the same, only he was stroking up and down, unsure if he could hold off.

“Harry, lock your door. And grab lube.”

“Are we gonna have Skype sex?”

“God, I hope that’s what this is leading up to.”

Harry couldn’t hold back his giggle, but he still jumped up to do as he was told.

He also grabbed his shoebox out from under his bed and pulled out his dildo. 

“How did I blow you if you’re still wearing sweatpants?” Louis teased from the computer.

“Shut up.”

Harry slid down his pants and his boxers, as well, letting his hard cock bounce back up.

Louis catcalled his boyfriend, who just blushed at the attention.

“Let me see you, then.”

Louis proudly stood up, naked as the day he was born, to show Harry just how hard he was.

“How do you want me, babe?” Harry asked.

Louis pondered the question. “On the bed. Hands and knees first. Let me see that ass of yours.”

Harry bit his lip in anticipation. “OK.”

He moved his computer from the desk to the end of the bed, getting into position. He angled himself so that his ass faced the screen, but also so that he could easily look over his shoulder and see what Louis was doing behind him.

“Slick up your fingers, baby,” Louis guided. “Start to open yourself up, nice and slow.”

Harry didn’t know how slow it would be. He was already on edge and didn’t know if he’d be able to hold back. Nevertheless, Harry reached around and inched one lubed finger inside himself.

“Louis,” he sighed.

“How’s that feel?”

“Perfect. I can feel you moving your finger around, getting me ready.”

“You’re so tight around my finger, too, Harry. I’m moving a little faster now.”

“Yeah, you are,” Harry confirmed. “You’re about to pull out and add another finger, too.”

“Already?”

Harry just looked back and nodded quickly. “You definitely are.”

“You’re right. I just added a second finger.”

Harry did as he said, adding another finger inside himself. He immediately felt the stretch. He let out another moan as he scissored his fingers.

He could feel his back starting to arch a little, and it was getting harder to keep himself balanced with just one hand on the bed.

“Louis,” he whimpered.

“I just curled my fingers, babe,” Louis responded.

Harry did so, too, feeling the tips of his fingers rub up against his prostate.

“Oh, shit,” Harry cried out.

“Just added a third.”

Harry nodded, before sliding another finger inside himself. He was going to feel it in the morning.

“Louis, please.”

“What do you need?”

That’s the thing. Harry wasn’t sure what he needed, but he needed it _now._

“You. God, I need you.”

“Do you feel me kissing you? Your lips, her neck, right behind your ear?”

Harry nodded again, imagining the pressure of Louis’ lips on all of the places he’d just mentioned.

“You look so hot like this, Harry. You have no idea.”

“Your cock,” he gritted out. “I need your cock. Now.”

“OK. Pull your fingers out.”

Harry whimpered, but slipped his fingers out of his hole after one last touch to his prostate.

He quickly felt empty.

“Now turn around so I can see you. And get on your knees so you can ride me.”

Harry got into the right position and saw that Louis had made a tight-looking circle with his fingers.

“Now line yourself up and start sinking down. Slowly.”

Harry lubed up his dildo. When he thought it looked slick enough, he put it down in a comfortable position and then sat himself down on it.

As he did, he watched Louis move his hand over his own dick.

“Move when you’re ready,” Louis said.

Harry didn’t waste any time. As soon as he got the green light, he brought himself up and down in small movements.

“You’re so fucking tight, Harry,” Louis breathed out. “You should see yourself, taking my cock so well.”

Harry whimpered as he rode his toy. It wasn’t as good as Louis’ actual cock by any means, but at the moment, it was serving its purpose.

He looked his boyfriend in the eyes as he continued moving. The only noise in the room was the sound of their breathing.

Harry rolled his hips a few times, getting a groan from Louis, who then moved his fist a little quicker.

“Louis, touch me,” Harry begged. “Please.”

“Not yet.”

Harry groaned. “I’m not gonna last, babe.”

“God, you’re desperate for it, aren’t you? Just want me to wrap my hand around your dick and get you off?”

“Yes,” Harry cried. “Please, babe.”

“OK. Just because you asked nicely.”

Harry got his other hand around himself, having to raise himself up a little bit so he didn’t fall over.

He threw his head back and went to town on himself.

He smeared the precome that was leaking out all around his cock, using it to reduce the sting of his hand moving up and down so quickly.

“Oh, God, Harry,” Louis moaned quietly.

Harry looked back at the screen to see Louis panting, bucking his hips up and down to get his cock through his fist.

“I’m gonna come. Oh, shit, I’m gonna come.”

“Me, too,” Louis replied.

“Louis. Fuck. Louis. Oh, my God…”

“Let go, babe. Come on; come all over yourself. I know you’re getting tired from bouncing on my dick for so long. Your thighs are probably burning, and you just want to come so bad, don’t you?”

Harry watched his boyfriend, who was staring intently back at him.

His words did him in.

Harry’s mouth dropped open in a silent moan, and he felt himself release all over his comforter.

“Shit,” he whispered.

He kept pumping himself through it, until he was done.

“Keep fucking me, Louis,” he spoke softly. He could barely breathe correctly, but he knew that his boyfriend hadn’t come yet.

He let go of his softening cock and gently pulled his dildo out, sitting back on the bed.

“Come on. Flip me over if you have to, but keep pounding away at my ass.”

Louis dropped his head back over the top of his chair, getting back into it.

“Are you on top now?” Harry wondered.

“Yeah,” Louis admitted. “God, Harry.”

“Good. Because I just wrapped my legs around you so I can pull you close. And now I’m kissing your neck and pulling your hair.”

“Keep going. Almost there.”

“And I just sucked on my finger, and it’s all slick with spit. I’m running my fingers down your ass, and I’m pushing one finger in that pretty hole of yours-“

“Shit! Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Louis whimpered.

And then he came, too.

Harry could see cum splatters on Louis’ stomach.

“Almost came again just watching you,” Harry confessed breathlessly once Louis was finished.

Louis let out a quiet laugh as he threw an arm over his face.

Harry waited for Louis to catch his breath again.

“It’s really hot in here,” Louis finally said. “Are you hot?”

“Sweating. I’m about to turn on the air conditioner.”

Louis grinned. He grabbed a tissue from the box on his desk and wiped himself down.

“Why haven’t we done that before?”

“I don’t know, but we need to make it a regular thing,” Harry replied.

“You can top next time.”

“Deal.”

“Do you at least feel better? Less stressed, hopefully?”

“Way less stressed. Thank you.”

“Any time. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

\---

On Wednesday night, for the first time in about a year, publishing the paper was second priority in the news office.

“Separate,” Casey said.

Niall thought over the word before starting spell it. “S-E-P-E-“

Casey made a loud buzzing noise. “Try again.”

Niall dropped his head in his hands and sighed.

“Come on, Niall,” she encouraged, “you only have a few more left to go over.”

“Remind me again what you’re studying for?” KJ asked from his desk.

“Copy Editing midterm,” Niall answered.

“Your midterm is a spelling test?” Tyler scoffed.

“No, it’s a practice test for the GSP.”

The GSP was the final test for Copy Editing, a class that all journalism majors had to take. It was 100 questions dealing with grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Students needed a 70 to pass, and if they failed, they had to keep taking it until they got the necessary grade. If they didn’t pass the GSP, they didn’t pass the course. And since it was a required course, they _had_ to pass.

Unfortunately, since the class had just fifteen spots and was only offered in the fall, most students had to wait to take Copy Editing until their senior year.

What luck.

“The spelling is just a part of it,” Niall continued. “I’m not bad with the punctuation and grammar stuff, but some of these words keep tripping me up.”

“It can’t be that hard,” Tyler muttered.

Niall still heard him.

“Yeah? Spell ‘conscientious.’ And no, you can’t write it down.”

“Easy,” Tyler replied. “C-O-N-“

He paused, looking up toward the ceiling, trying to recall the rest of the word.

“S?” he guessed.

Niall raised his eyebrows, but didn’t answer.

“No, I mean C. I mean, wait…”

He scrunched his face up before noticing Niall’s smirk.

“Whatever; who cares?” Tyler gave up and returned to his computer.

Niall, Casey and KJ just laughed at their coworker.

“Come on, Niall; focus,” Casey kicked the leg of his chair. “Spell separate.”

“OK. Separate. S-E-P-A-R-A-T-E.”

“Good. Liaison.”

“What?”

“Liaison,” Casey repeated.

“Um… L-I-A,” he stopped spelling to think about it. “Wait, let me start again.”

“Niall,” Casey groaned.

“Liaison,” Eleanor called from the editors’ table. “L-I-A-I-S-O-N. Liaison.”

“El,” Niall whined. “I would’ve gotten it eventually.”

“Of course you would’ve. But I need to practice, too. We all do, if we’re going to beat Liam’s score.”

“You won’t beat his score.” Dani shook her head. Maybe she was a little biased, but she wanted her boyfriend to hold onto the top score of the GSP.

“What did he get?” Harry asked, stepping out of his office to stretch.

“92,” Leigh-Anne answered from the News section. “He got it two years ago, and no one else has beaten it yet.”

“So you guys want to beat the score.” Cher nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Wonder who it’ll be?” Hurley questioned. “Niall, you better pick up on that spelling.”

“I’m trying!”

“Shouldn’t you guys be working or something?” Dani huffed. She was currently the only one proofreading articles, since Eleanor was going over her grammar rules again.

But as she ducked her head, they could all see her smile.

“OK, Niall.” Casey turned back to her co-editor. “One more word then we’ll get back to the pages.”

“OK.”

“Spell ‘connoisseur.’”

Niall just stared at her like she had grown a second nose.

“I need a drink,” he finally said.

“Do you want wine? If you have enough, you could be considered a wine connoisseur.”

“I don’t need an example!”

“Then spell it!”

Niall groaned. He couldn’t wait for this test to be over.

\---

Harry walked out of his last midterm on Friday morning and leaned against the wall outside of the room.

He let out a long sigh of relief, finally feeling the weight off his chest. He was finally done his midterms - all six of them. And not a minute sooner. 

He opened his Messages and started a group one.

**_Harry: Finally done midterms._ **

**_Louis: yay! so proud, babe._ **

**_Niall: I got a fucking 80 on the practice GSP! Bow down! I’m gonna ace the real one!_ **

**_Louis: how did you do better than me?  
_ **

**_Zayn: Good job, Ni_ **

**_Harry: Lou, what did you get?_ **

**_Louis: i got a 76. grammar was not my friend._ **

**_Liam: i’m still number one, i see_ **

**_Niall: Shut up._ **

**_Harry: No one likes a show off, Liam._ **

**_Liam: i do._ **

**_Louis: yeah, I guess we’ll keep you around, Li._ **

**_Harry: Dani’ll be thrilled._ **

**_Liam: ??_ **

**_Niall: Hahahaha_ **

**_Harry: Dani said nobody else would get a higher score than you._ **

**_Louis: what did El get?_ **

**_Liam: that’s my girl_ **

**_Niall: 87._ **

**_Liam: so close!_ **

**_Zayn: wow_ **

**_Niall: Who cares? You’re missing the important thing! I PASSED!_ **

**_Louis: you boys drinking tonight?_ **

**_Niall: Duh_ **

**_Zayn: Was that a real question, Lou_ **

**_Zayn: Come on_ **

**_Louis: just wanted to make sure. you never know, Niall could want a quiet night in every now and then_ **

**_Liam: hahahaha_ **

**_Niall: Really?_ **

**_Zayn: haha good one Lou_ **

**_Harry: Shots all around._ **

**_Louis: right. forgot who I was talking to._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And before you ask... Yes. The GSP is a real test. I took it my senior year. I got a 94. =)
> 
> Chapter 10 will be up Tuesday night!


	10. Halloween Spirit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the Halloween chapter! Just like in Monday Meetings, it's broken up by couple.  
> There are minor warnings for this chapter. The first is for cross-dressing/make-up wearing Harry (but not really, it's just for a costume). If you don't want to read that, skip the Louis/Harry part.  
> The second warning is for Halloween-related grossness - fake blood, scary situations, brains in hand, etc. If you don't want to read about that, then skip the Niall/Josh part.  
> I think that's it. Happy reading!

**Tuesday**

****

**_Zayn: Bad news. Can’t do Creamy Acres Friday. But it’s for a good reason!_ **

**_Harry: What happened?  
_**

**_Niall: ???_ **

**_Zayn: I got an interview for that internship I was telling you about. But it’s on Saturday morning._ **

**_Louis: that sucks_ **

**_Liam: congratulations!_ **

**_Louis: yeah that, too._ **

**_Zayn: I wasn’t looking forward to haunted houses much, anyway._ **

**_Harry: Good luck!_ **

**_Zayn: Perrie’s gonna help me prep for it, so she’s not going, either._ **

**_Niall: Figured._ **

**_Louis: you’ll get it_ **

**_Zayn: Thanks. Fingers crossed._ **

\---

**Thursday**

 

**_Liam: so… dani and i can’t go tomorrow night, either_ **

**_Niall: How come?_ **

**_Liam: she’s sick. el’s going home for the weekend and doesn’t want to leave her by herself, so i’m gonna go over tomorrow after work_ **

**_Louis: ugh, what does she have?  
_**

**_Harry: Yeah, she didn’t look that good last night at the office._ **

**_Liam: some headache stomach issue. she might not be in tonight, actually_ **

**_Niall: I told her to go home last night._ **

**_Louis: hope she feels better_ **

**_Niall: I better not get sick._ **

**_Liam: me, too. I’m sure she will be, but just in case, we’re not going tomorrow._ **

**_Liam: niall, shut up_ **

**_Harry: It’s all right. You’re forgiven._ **

**_Liam: =)_** **_  
_ **

\---

**Friday**

 

**_Louis: niall, don’t hate me._ **

**_Niall: Now what?!_ **

**_Louis: i can’t go tonight. My mom’s been throwing up all day and she can’t take the twins trick or treating, and she’s too paranoid to let them go alone. So I have to go with them._ **

**_Niall: Can’t Lottie or Fizzy do it?_ **

**_Louis: yeah, right. Like they would volunteer for that.  
_**

**_Louis: but they have a party to go to_ **

**_Niall: Ugh… Harry, are you third wheeling with me and Josh, then? Or going with Louis?_ **

**_Harry: Gee, make me feel included…_ **

**_Harry: But I’m going with Louis._ **

**_Louis: =)_** **_  
_ **

**_Harry: And Niall, you’re sitting right next to me. You could just ask in person._ **

**_Niall: You could've told me in person instead of waiting for Louis to do it. But fine. It’s your loss. You’ll miss me screaming like a little girl the first time something jumps out at me._ **

**_Louis: believe me, I’ve already mourned that loss_ **

**_Harry: Hahahaha_ **

**_Niall: Harry, I’m sitting right next to you. You didn’t laugh that hard._ **

**_Harry: =|_** **_  
_ **

\---

“You didn’t have to come up here, you know.”

“I know.” Liam shrugged. He handed Dani the soup he’d just warmed up for her and sat down on the couch beside her. “But I wanted to. I mean, you were clearly sick on Wednesday and you didn’t even go to the office yesterday. That’s nothing to take lightly.”

“You could’ve gone with the guys, though,” Dani said as she snuggled further under her blanket. “I made you miss it because I have a stupid fever.”

“I’d rather be here with you. It’s cold outside and there are creepy guys in masks and all black just walking around over there. Plus, I didn’t want to be third wheeling it all night.”

“But you could’ve watched Niall scream that high-pitched wail he does when he gets scared. You love that.”

“Stop trying to make me… I don’t know. Whatever this is. Make me feel bad about staying? I don’t feel bad. I offered, remember?”

“I just hope you don’t get sick.”

“If I do, it’ll just give me a reason to call out of work.”

Dani looked over at her boyfriend, who busied himself with finding something to watch on the television.

“How is work going, anyway?”

Liam shrugged. “It’s going all right, I guess. Brooke hasn’t mentioned any articles I could write, so there’s that.”

“You’ll get something else,” Dani said. “I know you will.”

“Thanks. I just have to be patient, I guess.”

“Exactly. You’ve made it this far, what’s a little bit more?”

Liam nodded, but stayed quiet.

“So… How’s the apartment search?”

“I think it’s OK,” Liam answered. “I mean, we haven’t found anything that’s really great, but Louis told me the other day that his mom is asking Dan to move in.”

“Good for them!”

“I think so, too. But, the best part is that when Dan moves in, he’ll need to get rid of his apartment. And Louis was thinking of asking him if there was any way he could switch it from Dan’s name to Louis’ and mine. We just have to wait until Jay actually asks Dan to move in.”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t do any good to ask Dan before he knows he’s moving in.”

“Exactly. So, we’ll see. I think if it’s an easy switch, Dan won’t have a problem with it. He trusts Louis.”

Dani nodded. “Is it a nice apartment?”

“According to Louis, it’s two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It’s in Delran, so, travel-wise, it’s all right. It’s closer to my job than to Louis’, but he’s fine with that. We have to pay for parking, but it has a washer and dryer.”

“How much is it?”

“$1,300.”

“So, in the middle of the other ones you were looking at?”

“Sort of, yeah. But it has everything we need. And Louis said it’s a good size. Once he talks to Dan about it all, then he’ll take me to see it.”

“This is so exciting!” Dani smiled. “You could finally have an apartment.”

“And out of my parents’ house. Do you know what happened to me the other day?”

“What?”

“I just got out of the shower, and I’m standing in front of the sink, shaving. And then my mom bursts in, without knocking, and starts putting towels away in the linen closet. I cut myself because she scared me.”

“Is that what this little scar is right here?”

Dani tapped a red scab on Liam’s chin.

“Yeah,” Liam answered. “That’s my mom’s fault. So I said to her, ‘Mom, what if I was naked in here?’ because I had a towel around my waist, at least.”

“Oh, you know better than to say that kind of stuff to Karen.”

“I know.” Liam shook his head. “I don’t know what I was thinking. But you know what she does? She turns around, totally straight-faced, and says, ‘I gave birth to you.’ And then she walked out, like nothing happened.”

Dani started laughing. “That’s awesome!”

“That’s not awesome! I need to get out of that house. They’re getting too comfortable having me there.”

“Well, they are your parents.”

“I know, but I’m nowhere near that comfortable in front of them.”

“You’ll get over it.” Dani took a long sip of her broth.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Well, how’s everything at school?”

“OK, I guess. We’re running kind of low on writers, so Higgins and Teasdale told me and El that they want us to promote the paper more next semester.”

Liam groaned. “Like classroom visits?”

“Yup.”

In years prior, when the number of writing staff started to dwindle, the editors would have to go to different journalism classes and give small presentations about the newspaper and why the aspiring writers in those classes should join the staff.

It was totally embarrassing and awkward, and usually yielded little results, but it was something that sometimes had to be done.

They hadn’t had to do it the past few years because the list of available writers had been consistently high. This year, however, was different.

“Sorry,” Liam said.

“It’s OK. Just comes with the job.”

“Make Niall do it,” Liam suggested. “You know he would have no problem going to random classes and promoting the paper.”

“True,” Dani agreed. “With his energy, he could probably recruit non-journalism majors, too. I think I’ll ask everyone one-on-one if they want to help instead of as a general announcement at the staff meeting. That way, if they feel uncomfortable doing that, for whatever reason, they won’t feel pressured to do it, you know what I mean?”

“I think that’s a good idea.”

Dani ate some more of her soup. “Yeah, I think that’s what we’ll do.”

She put her bowl down on the coffee table in front of her and undid the bun she had on top of her head.

She shook out her hair and ran her fingers through the waves before putting it back up.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked as she looped the hair tie around her curls.

Liam scrunched his face up. “We sound like such adults.”

“Well, yeah,” Dani laughed, “that’s what happens when you get older.”

“Well I don’t like that. I never signed up for this: happily spending a Friday night in with my girlfriend and talking about apartments and jobs and other nonsense. Next, you’re gonna bring up mortgages and health insurance payments.”

“Relax. We have until we’re 26 to worry about health insurance.”

“What a silver lining.”

“It is. It’s one whole thing we don’t have to worry about for four more years.”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

“Exactly,” Dani smiled. “Now put something on the TV. I’m tired of talking to you.”

Liam gaped at her, trying to hold back his own smile. “Rude.”

Dani just grinned and finished her soup.

\---

Louis shook his head at Daisy and Phoebe.

“No way in hell.”

“Louis!” Jay scolded from the couch. “Language.”

“Sorry. No way in heck.”

“Louis!”

“Fine. Just, God I never thought I’d say this, but can I be Princess Peach?”

“I think we can all agree that I should be Princess Peach,” Harry said.

He took the costume from Phoebe and went upstairs to change.

“Lou, come on,” Daisy whined. “You’ve known for weeks that me, Pheebs, Mom and Dan were going as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Yoshi for Halloween.”

“But they’re not going,” Louis protested. “I didn’t think that their costumes would carry over to me and Harry just because we’re taking you trick-or-treating.”

“Of course it would,” Dan said as he came down the stairs. He turned and called up, “Lottie, Fizzy, let’s go!”

“Coming!” came Fizzy’s yell from her room.

“I really have to be Yoshi?” Louis asked.

“Yes.”

Daisy shoved the costume she had been holding into Louis’ hands and then put her hands on her hips. “We’ll wait.”

Phoebe took on the same pose.

Louis stared at the twins, not wanting to accept the fact that they had completely inherited all of his sass.

They were dressed as Mario and Luigi, wearing identical denim overalls, white gloves and tan work boots. However, Daisy had on a red T-shirt and backwards baseball cap, while Phoebe wore green.

Obviously, Louis and Harry had to accompany them as Yoshi and Princess Peach.

“Fine,” he conceded. “I’ll go change.”

The twins smiled and sat down on the couch next to their mom.

“Starting to think you’re throwing up on purpose,” Louis mumbled as he went upstairs.

Jay still heard him and shot him a menacing glare.

Louis went to his room and grabbed the doorknob. It was locked.

“Harry, you in there?” he called.

“Just a second!” Harry sang.

“Harry, come on, open the door. I need to get this over with.”

“Hang on. I need to make a grand presentation.”

“Are you serious?”

“You should know by now that I am.”

Louis sighed and leaned against the wall, waiting for his ridiculous boyfriend to come out.

“OK. Ready?” Harry asked through the door.

“The suspense is killing me,” Louis deadpanned.

Harry opened the door, revealing what he was wearing.

Louis felt his breath catch in his throat.

Harry was dressed as Princess Peach, all right, wearing a pale pink, knee-length dress that had a hot pink belt around the waist and frilly lace on the shoulders. He wore white stockings and held a wand that Jay had made for the costume last week.

Louis gave Harry a slow once-over, smiling when he saw that Harry had to improvise on the shoes, and was wearing his red, high-top Converse.

“I couldn’t get the blonde wig to cooperate,” Harry complained, “so I figured I could just keep my hair down and call it a day.”

Harry adjusted the tiara he wore on top of his head before looking at Louis again.

“So what do you think?”

Louis didn’t answer. Instead, he just let his eyes slowly drag over Harry’s body again.

Harry tapped Louis’ nose with the wand. “Eyes up.”

Louis’ eyes snapped up to Harry’s. “Sorry. But you look…”

Louis’ lips parted slightly as he looked Harry over again.

“Louis!”

“Sorry! You look great.”

“Thank you. I need blush, though. Is Lottie still here? Maybe she can give me some makeup.”

Harry walked by Louis. He went to the end of the hallway and up the stairs to the third floor, where Lottie and Fizzy’s shared room was.

Louis stared after his boyfriend for a moment before remembering that he was supposed to be changing.

He went into his room and got down to his briefs. Then he examined the [costume](http://www.mrcostumes.com/Adult-Mario-Brothers-Yoshi-Costume-P100743.aspx), which was just a large, green, fabric onesie with holes for his feet and hands. Attached to the back were a large red hump and a pointy green tail. But then there was the headpiece, which was all green fabric, with just a space for his face so he could see. There were red bumps on the back of it, and huge eyes on top.

He was going to look ridiculous.

“The things I do…”

Louis got dressed, just wanting to get this over with.

Once he was done, he put on his black Vans and went to the living room to wait.

“You look so cute!” Jay praised as he came down the stairs.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Louis said.

“Will Harry hurry up?” Phoebe complained. “We need to go. All of the good candy will be gone.”

“He’s coming; he had to get his makeup done.”

Jay, Daisy and Phoebe all turned to look at Louis.

“Hey, you wanted him to wear the costume. You should know by now that he’s not gonna do it half-assed.”

“Language,” Jay said.

“Sorry.”

Dan came in from the kitchen a few minutes later. “Lottie! Fizzy! You almost ready?”

“Yeah, we’re here,” Fizzy answered, coming down the stairs.

Lottie's friend Em had invited her and Fizzy over to her house for a comic book themed Halloween party. Fizzy was dressed as Hawkeye, wearing black tights tucked into black boots and a black tank top. In her hand, she held a bow and arrow, left over from her Katniss Everdeen phase a few years back. Her long brown hair was in a high ponytail at the back of her head.

“Lottie was just finishing Harry’s makeup. He looks better than I do, honestly.”

“I can’t wait to see this,” Jay said.

“Yeah, you don’t want to miss it,” Fizzy replied as she checked her own makeup in the mirror hanging by the door.

“Here we come!” Lottie announced a few minutes later.

Everyone looked up to see Lottie and Harry make their entrance.

Lottie was wearing a black and red striped crop top that showed off just a little of her midriff, with dark red leggings and black Mary Jane heels. She had on heavy eyeliner and dark lipstick, and her blonde hair was pulled back into two high ponytails on the sides of her head.

“Hawkeye and Harley Quinn,” Louis commented. “Never thought my sisters would make me so proud.”

Lottie rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Louis.”

And Louis did, because that’s when he noticed that Harry had already started descending the stairs.

If Louis thought that Harry looked hot before, well it was nothing compared to this.

His boyfriend had on light eyeliner and mascara. Lottie had also put a little bit of blush on his cheeks, and finished the look with some peach tinted lip balm.

Louis was speechless. Again.

“Good job, Lottie,” Jay complimented. “Harry, you look great.”

“Best looking Princess Peach there is,” Dan agreed. “You know, since Jay couldn’t do it.”

“I know."Harry smiled. "Thanks, Dan.” 

“Girls, you ready?” Dan asked Lottie and Fizzy. He was going to be taking them to their party and then coming back to stay with Jay, just in case she got sick some more.

They both nodded. Dan grabbed his keys from the hook by the door while the girls hugged their mom and told her to feel better.

“Be back,” Dan said. He quickly kissed Jay goodbye, and then the three of them were out the door.

“Well let’s go,” Harry told the twins. “Grab your pillow cases.”

Daisy and Phoebe grinned and hurried up to their room.

“Uh oh,” Jay muttered. She quickly got up to her feet and rushed up the stairs to her bathroom.

“Poor mom,” Louis stated.

“She’ll be OK. It’s normal.”

“Still… You really do look great, by the way.”

“Thanks, Yoshi. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

“Oh, yeah? Green dinosaurs turn you on?”

“Maybe.”

Harry shimmied his shoulders a little, the grin never leaving his face.

“You’re having fun like this, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” Harry answered. “If you want, we can have a little fun later tonight.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Harry leaned down and tried to kiss Louis.

“Whoa, there.” Louis swerved to the side, avoiding the kiss.

“What?”

“I don’t want to mess up your lip balm.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Listen, Lottie did a good job. I don’t want to mess it up.”

Harry rolled his eyes, so Louis kissed him on the cheek as a consolation.

“Ready!” the twins called out as they ran down the stairs, clutching pillowcases in their hands.

“Let’s go get some candy!” Louis enthused. “Bye, mom!”

“Bye!” Jay called back from upstairs. “Love you! Have fun!”

“OK, twins,” Louis said as he locked the door behind him, “this is your one chance to get as much candy as you can. Are you up for the challenge?”

“Yes!” Daisy answered. “Now let’s go!”

“We’re wasting time!” Phoebe added.

The two of them started walking, leaving Louis and Harry to follow closely behind.

"And you know,” Louis whispered to Harry, “we can probably steal some of their candy when they go to sleep."

"Louis!" Harry scolded. "You can't take candy from your little sisters."

"Why not?"

"Because it's theirs!"

"So? I helped them get it. I deserve a share."

"You're horrible."

"You love me, though." Louis grinned. 

"I guess."

\---

Perrie furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. She stroked her chin as she asked, “Why do you want to work here?”

Zayn raised an eyebrow at her. “Be serious, please.”

“I am. This is my serious face. Now, Mr. Malik, tell me why you want to work here.”

He rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help but smile.

The two of them were in Zayn’s bedroom. Perrie was sprawled across his bed, lying on her stomach with a bunch of sample questions in front of her.

They had already been at it for an hour, but Zayn had wanted to make sure he was ready. So much that he had asked Perrie to go through all of the sample questions again.

“I want to work here, because… I’m very interested in learning more about art presentation. I majored in Art in college, and just graduated in May with my Bachelor’s degree. I feel that I’ve learned a lot about art and finding my inspiration for my pieces, but I think I’ll learn even more about channeling my emotions into my art by being around it more. I want to learn about the artists that we work with and find out what makes them passionate about their work. Being here will make me a better artist, as well.”

“What kind of art do you have an interest in?” Perrie asked.

“All kinds, really. I work a lot with graffiti and comic book graphics, but I also loved charcoal and sculpting in college.”

“What made you get into graffiti art? We don’t hear much about that, to be honest.”

“Yes, I realize it’s not the most conventional style, but I just love making big, bold, bright designs. It only started because my mom told me I couldn’t use spray paint on my walls when I was remodeling my bedroom when I was younger. So when I got to college, I was like, ‘I have the option to use spray paint? Well then, yeah, I’m definitely gonna spray paint.”

Perrie laughed. “Make sure you smile just like you did there.”

“I smiled?”

“Yeah, you did. You get really excited when you talk about your art.”

“It’s because I don’t get to talk about it that much. Not around here, anyway.”

Zayn had been pacing while he was practicing his answers, but now was standing still.

“Did you tell your dad about your interview?”

“Sort of… I told my mom and he came home as I finished, so he asked what happened. So, I told him and of course, the first question out of his mouth was, ‘How much does it pay?’”

Perrie bit her lip as Zayn spoke. She knew how hard of a time Zayn was having with getting his father to realize that showing support for Zayn meant showing support for all aspects of his chosen field.

She knew that his father supported him, but couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Zayn still didn’t have a ‘real’ job.

“I hated having to tell him that it was an unpaid internship.” Zayn sighed. “As if it’s what I want to do. You know what I mean? I didn’t ask for this. I want to work with art and be around art and make art, but I can’t do that without getting more experience first. And it’s nearly impossible to find paid experience right away.”

“Did you tell him that?”

Zayn shook his head. “No, I didn't get a chance. He just said, ‘Oh,’ and then asked my mom what was for dinner.”

He sat down on the bed next to Perrie. “I wish he would just understand,” he confessed. “I wish I didn’t feel like shit every time I told him something he didn’t like.”

“It’s not up to you to make him happy. You know that, right? You told him a long time ago that you were majoring in art, and that it wouldn’t be easy, but it’s what you wanted. He might not support art as a career, but it’s not his choice to make.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” Perrie wondered curiously. “Sometimes I don’t think you do.”

“No, I do. It’s just hard.”

“I know, babe.”

Perrie sat up and kissed Zayn on his cheek. “You know what we could do?”

“What?”

She rolled off the bed and went to the book bag she’d brought with her, pulling out packages of microwave popcorn, bags of candy and some DVDs.

“ _Scary Movie 1, 2, 3 or 4_?”

“What about _5_?”

“That one doesn’t count. No Anna Faris. Come on, we can watch a movie, eat some popcorn, let you relax before your interview in the morning.”

“Not yet; ask me a few more questions,” Zayn insisted.

“Fine. Should I start with Kit Kats or Twix?”

“That’s not a real question.”

“Sure it is; I just asked it.”

Zayn fixed Perrie with a stare, who just started giggling at her own joke.

“Fine,” Zayn relented. “Give me the popcorn.”

\---

“I can’t believe I’m really doing this,” Niall muttered as he closed the car door behind him.

He and Josh had just arrived to [Creamy Acres](http://www.nightofterror.com/home/attractions), and Niall could already feel his heart racing in his chest.

Despite it being his idea to come here in the first place, Niall was scared. He was afraid of what might possibly jump out at him wearing a creepy glow in the dark clown mask while holding a chainsaw.

He realized that was very specific, but he’d seen it in one of the videos on the website, and it had haunted him ever since.

In his defense, though, when he pitched the idea, there had been eight of them going. Now it was down to two.

“You’ll be fine,” Josh assured as they walked up to the ticket booth. “Just hide behind me if you get really scared.”

“What do you mean, _if_?”

Josh smiled. “Two, please.”

He paid for their tickets and they made their way inside.

It was after eight at night, so the farm in front of them was dark, with only overhead lights near the barns and sheds to guide their way.

In front of them, Josh could see painted wooden signs showing them which houses were where.

“Let’s start with a haunted house,” Josh suggested.

“I guess.”

They walked past a bunch of picnic tables and about a million bales of hay, following a big red arrow that was pointed toward ‘Slaughter Cave.’

“Why did you pick this one first?” Niall asked as they got in line.

“Because it was the first one I saw. Plus, the line isn’t too bad. We shouldn’t be here for too long.”

“They can’t touch me, right? Like, they need to keep their hands to themselves?”

“They’re supposed to,” Josh answered.

“What do you mean, ‘supposed to’?”

“I mean, _of course_ they don’t touch you. They would never do that.”

Niall rolled his eyes. “You’re a terrible liar.”

Josh just shrugged.

They moved up in line, and Niall could see the guy hole-punching tickets just up ahead.

“What if I wet myself? Can we go home?”

“No. So don’t do it on purpose.”

Niall sighed. “Damn,” he muttered under his breath.

About ten minutes later, it was their turn to go in.

“Now just stay calm and breathe,” Josh instructed.

“This your first time in a haunted house or something?” the employee at the front of the line asked as he punched their tickets.

“Something like that,” Niall said.

The employee smirked. “Good luck, then.”

“What does that mean?”

Josh started pushing Niall forward so they could enter.

“What does that mean?” Niall asked again, but he didn’t get a response.

They got to the front door of the house, where another employee was waiting for them.

Niall saw that there were six other people who were going to walk through with them. But of course, Josh made him be in the front.

She gave them a quick speech about walking, not running, through the attraction and said that if they used an emergency exit, they wouldn’t be allowed to re-enter.

After that, they were sent inside.

It was dark, and Niall hated it already.

The two of them walked around a corner, and saw a creepy setting where a man in a lab coat was hovering over something on a lab table.

Niall could only see the man’s back, but knew it wasn’t something good on the table. His arms were working quickly, as if he was performing surgery.

Suddenly, he raised his hand in the air, holding something that looked… squishy.

Niall scrunched his face up and started moving, not wanting to be anywhere near that man or whatever he was holding in his hand.

But it was no use, as the man turned around and started walking toward Niall with his hand extended.

“Nope,” Niall said, walking more quickly to get to the next part of the house.

Of course, the man followed him, wanting to show him what he had.

Niall picked up the pace and ran through the archway that led something else. He could hear Josh laughing behind him.

The next part was a bunch of tools on a table, and there was someone sharpening an already sharp looking bone saw.

The person stopped sharpening and examined the saw, cackling as he danced his fingers over the blade.

Then he looked up sharply, focusing his attention on the group walking in. He eerily waved at them before laughing again.

As Niall turned to look at the path in front of him, he jumped, seeing someone with a black hood on and a monster mask covering his face standing there, staring at him.

Niall let out a loud, high-pitched scream and maneuvered his way around him. But the employee followed Niall down the hallway.

Niall ran past the next part of the house, not paying too much attention to what it entailed. There was fake blood on the walls and a bright flickering light there. He didn’t need to see it.

He finally lost the employee, who let him walk away, but not without waving at Niall first.

Josh walked up behind him, a smile on his face. Of course, the employee didn’t bother Josh at all.

The two of them kept walking through the house, passing some more people in creepy masks and heavy looking jackets.

They walked through a long, dark tunnel to get to the exit. Niall felt someone grab at his ankle, and ran the rest of the way out. As soon as his feet hit grass, he turned on Josh.

“You’re evil,” Niall scolded.

“This was your idea,” Josh said through his laughs.

“And you went along with it. You know I hate scary stuff.”

“It’s not my fault you’re visibly frightened. You have to look calm, otherwise they’ll follow you on purpose. It’s their job to scare the shit out of people, remember?”

“Oh, I remember. And I hope they’re paid well, because they did a great job of that.”

“Then stop complaining,” Josh said. “Let’s do the hay ride next. It lets us off in the corn maze and we have to find our way out.”

“That sounds horrible.”

Niall followed him anyway.

They went to the line for the haunted hayride and waited about twenty minutes.

When it was their turn, the attendant punched their tickets and let them through.

They climbed up the ladder attached to the back of the trailer that would take them through the cornfield, and took a seat on the bales of hay lined up along the sides. They rested their backs against the metal sides. There was space in the metal, though. Niall figured someone would reach through and grab him at some point.

Niall was surprised to see kids already sitting there. They were probably about ten years old and with their parents, but still, children.

He tried to act tough when the tractor started driving away from the well-lit warehouse where the next groups of people were waiting for their turn.

It started out OK. They went on a drive past some small sites, like gravestones, huge spider webs and flickering lights. There were a few times when people charged the trailer or jumped out from behind bigger objects. Niall only jumped once. Maybe twice.

They drove through another warehouse that had some employees in all black, creepily staring and pointing at them as the tractor passed through.

Niall jumped when he was grabbed from behind.

He turned to see someone with a plastic _Scream_ mask standing there.

He moved closer to Josh, watching as the employee watched him.

They pulled out of the warehouse and continued down the dirt path. Niall could see the cornfields in the distance, and could feel himself starting to get nervous again.

So far on the ride, he’d been OK.

And then, out of nowhere, a pickup truck came barreling out of the woods behind the farm, headed right toward them.

Niall knew that deep down, the truck wouldn’t actually hit them, but, just in case, he braced himself for impact.

The tractor kept driving, and right when the truck should’ve crashed into them, it stopped. It started beeping loudly at them, like someone behind the wheel was holding down the horn.

A few other people had jumped when they thought the truck would crash into them, Niall was relieved to see.

As the tractor kept going, Niall looked back and saw the truck backing up toward the woods, like it was on some kind of pulley system to keep it from getting too far.

And then Niall heard the chain saws.

He turned to see two guys running from the woods behind him, and they both jumped onto the trailer.

Some of the kids screamed and hid behind their parents, and a few girls did, as well.

Niall tried to sit straight up and act like he wasn’t scared, like Josh told him after the haunted house.

One of the men walked over to where the kids were and shook the chainsaw in their faces. The kids hid more behind their parents, while their father wrapped his arms around all of them a little more.

The other guy was walking up and down the trailer, staring everyone down, like he was looking for his victim.

Niall was doing pretty good of keeping himself under control. Until a third guy came up to the side of the trailer and walked along with it, right behind Niall. He turned his chain saw on, and Niall screamed at the noise.

So of course, the guy with the chainsaw who had been walking on the trailer turned to Niall and aimed it right in his face.

Niall cursed his own dumb luck, not knowing where he should look. He had a chain saw behind him and one right in front of him, so there was really no winning there.

After sitting there for ten hours – or seconds, as Josh would later assure Niall – the chainsaw guys finally left Niall alone. The one outside of the trailer walked alongside of it, just letting his chainsaw make noise. The other two terrorized some other people before finally jumping off, and all three of them disappeared back into the woods.

Josh smiled at him and grabbed Niall’s hand, squeezing it in his own.

Niall felt the tractor slow down and looked to see that they were driving into the maze. A moment later, it stopped, and an employee walked over to instruct everyone to get off.

They stood up and walked toward the back, using the ladder to step carefully down to the ground.

Once everyone was off, the tractor started to drive away, heading back to the warehouse where it started. Niall wished he could jump back on it.

“Where should we go?” Josh asked as he looked around, trying to figure out where they should head first.

“This way?” Niall suggested, pointing to a part where the maze split off in two different directions.

Josh shrugged and the two of them started walking.

Niall could see a few other people in front of them, and heard some others off to the side, so he suspected it was OK.

The second he thought that, someone jumped out of the corn and yelled in Niall’s face.

Niall screamed before he ran away, trying to get away from the guy.

Josh, however, stayed behind, laughing way too hard at his boyfriend’s fear.

“Thanks, man,” Josh said to the guy before he walked away to find Niall.

The employee nodded before stepping backward into the corn so that he was out of sight.

Josh took his time getting out, though, wanting to see more of the maze than Niall probably had.

There were a few other people who jumped out at him, but they didn’t startle him nearly as much as they should’ve.

Josh enjoyed scary stuff. That’s why, when Niall had suggested coming here, he’d been excited to go. He had been confused at the fact that the suggestion came from Niall’s mouth, but still excited.

A few minutes later, Josh walked out of the maze to see Niall waiting for him.

“Oh, good; the maze didn’t eat you alive.”

“Nah.” Josh shrugged. “I took a few wrong turns.”

“On purpose?” Niall asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Just to see what else they had. You feeling OK?”

“I’m fine now that I’m out of there.”

Josh laughed. “You realize we still have three more things to do, right?”

“Shut up. Three?”

“Yeah, three. We’re only halfway done.”

“I’m gonna die,” Niall said.

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Says you.”

“Will some funnel cake make you feel better?”

Niall pondered the question for a moment. “Yes.”

“Well let’s go get some. Then we can go to the other haunted house when we’re done. Apparently, it’s got all neon colors and there’s like, 3D stuff that pops out at you.”

“Can’t wait.”

“I love you.” Josh kissed Niall on the cheek before walking away. He called over his shoulder, “Happy Halloween, babe!”

“Yeah, yeah. Happy Halloween.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the next chapter will definitely be delayed. I'm gonna be out/away all weekend, and then I have a fic for an exchange due next Thursday, so I'll most likely be revising that one all week to make sure it's ready.  
> So, next chapter should be up Wednesday, October 14.  
> But at least I'm not leaving you on a cliffhanger!  
> And nobody is having relationship drama! ... For now. ;)


	11. Hanging By A Thread

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! I know, I'm the literal worst at updates with this story. I've just been super busy with multiple fic exchanges, and I had a wedding to get ready for, and work's kicking my ass, blah blah blah. I'm full of excuses, I know.  
> Anyway, I am sorry. At this point, I wouldn't be super offended if you guys just subscribed to the story and just read it when it was all finished. Or you can keep reading chapter by chapter, even if there's weeks between updates.  
> All right, I'm done. Enjoy this chapter! And just so you know, there's some drama coming up over the next three chapters. Should be good stuff!

“Don’t lean on the glass.”

Louis jumped up, not wanting to get in trouble again for resting on the glass display case in the jewelry store.

Louis had an early day today, so once he got home, Dan picked him up so they could do more ring shopping.

Despite Louis’ constant protesting, Dan had not decided on a ring yet.

The two of them had been out at least twice a week for the last three weeks, and Dan had insisted that there was nothing that he liked. Louis kept pointing out diamond rings, but each one was ‘too small,’ ‘too flashy,’ ‘not pretty enough,’ or ‘not round enough.’

Yes, Dan was saying that there were some rings where the diamond wasn’t correctly shaped. Louis thought he was just being spitefully picky at this point. He was getting frustrated to the point that he wanted to suggest that the two of them just get rings tattooed onto their fingers and call it a day.

Dan pointed out a ring. “How’s that one?”

Louis looked at it, but couldn’t see it on his mom’s finger.

It was a rose gold, diamond-encrusted band, with a pear shaped diamond in the middle. It was definitely pretty, but it didn’t fit his mother.

“No.”

Dan sighed. “I’m never gonna find a ring. Maybe I should think outside the box.”

“How? With like, an engagement bracelet or something?”

“Or engagement necklace.”

“You know that was a plotline on _Friends,_ right?” Louis grinned. “The next one is engagement tiara.”

“I was wondering why it felt like I’ve had this conversation before…”

“You will find a ring!” Louis assured. “I’m gonna look over here.”

Louis walked to the opposite side of the store and started perusing cases.

There were more rings there with square or rectangular diamonds. Some bands were rose gold, others were white gold and a few were platinum.

And then Louis found it: _the_ ring. It had a skinny platinum band with a large square diamond in the middle, and a smaller round diamond on each side.

The ring was beautiful, and Louis knew his mom would love it. It was attention grabbing, but not extravagant. The diamonds were clear and not set too high up off the base of the ring. She would get plenty of compliments on it.

“Dan, what about this one?” he called across the room.

His future stepdad pulled himself away from the case he was inspecting and came over to stand next to Louis.

Louis pointed out the ring that he was looking at, and Dan leaned forward to further examine it.

He stared at it, his eyes focused in on the ring and taking in every minor detail.

“What do you think?” Louis asked after Dan was still silent a few minutes later.

Dan stood up straight and looked to the nearest employee. “I want this one,” he told her confidently.

Louis was sure he wasn’t imagining the look of relief on her face when he said that.

She came over to the cabinet and unlocked the door, pulling the ring out to let Dan hold it in his hand.

Dan examined it more closely, holding the ring up to his eye, so close it nearly poked him. Louis figured he was inspecting the cut of the ring as well as how shiny it was up close. Dan checked the price tag, and nodded contentedly when he read it.

“So…” Louis started. “Is this the ring?”

“This is the ring,” Dan decided without hesitation. “Let’s talk sizing.”

Louis dropped his head back and looked up at the ceiling, feeling a huge weight fall off his shoulders.

“Finally,” he muttered to himself.

Louis waited around while Dan talked over the details with the jeweler, discussing payments, size, and, of course, when the ring would be ready.

Eventually, Dan shook the jeweler’s hand, meaning the two of them were done. Louis had never been so happy to see a handshake in his life.

The two of them got in Dan’s car and headed for home.

“I made the right choice, right?” Dan asked. “I mean, it was a really pretty ring, and Jay’s gonna love it, right?”

Louis stayed silent, not knowing if Dan was actually talking to him, or was just trying to reassure himself.

“I mean, three stones…” Dan continued on his own, “three stones is great, right? I mean, one stone would be pretty enough, but it just looks better when it has another diamond on each side.”

Louis hummed in acknowledgement, letting Dan get his worries out.

“I picked the right ring. She’ll say ‘yes.’”

Louis watched Dan as he drove, seeing how straight he was sitting in his chair and how his hands clenched tightly onto the wheel. He saw that Dan kept licking his lips, and he was blinking a few too many times.

“Pull over,” Louis said.

“Why? Are you going to be sick?”

“Just pull over.”

With a quick glance at Louis, Dan turned on his signal and moved the car onto the shoulder of the quiet suburban road on which they were driving.

“What’s the matter?” Dan asked.

Louis paused to figure out how to best help Dan feel better.

“Do you know the last time I talked to my dad?” he started. “Like, on the phone, and not just in more than a few texts back and forth.”

Dan shook his head.

“It was probably about a month ago. He asked me how work was going, and how things were with me and Harry, and asked if I was taking care of the girls. Pretty basic father-son conversation, I guess.”

“Sounds all right.”

“But, I don’t remember the last time my dad and I had a conversation that wasn’t so… simple. Or, mandatory, even. You know what I mean? I don’t remember the last time my dad and I just talked about music, or books, or sports. And, I’m not saying that to put my dad in a bad light or anything. I mean, we’re both so busy, and we don’t see each other every day, so it’s hard. However, I do remember the last time that you and I had a conversation like that, where we didn’t talk about trivial matters. This morning. You asked if I had heard about The Fray announcing their new tour because you heard it on the radio and didn’t want me to miss them when they come around. You also told Daisy that you wanted to take her horseback riding soon because she hasn’t been since school started, and offered to get Lottie her hair dye after she started complaining about her roots starting to show. Dan, you already fit in with this family. This engagement and future marriage will just make everything a little more permanent. I wish you would stop stressing about asking my mom to marry you. She _will_ say ‘yes,’ no matter when or how you ask her. She will _love_ the ring, but that’ll just be the icing on the cake when you propose. She’s saying ‘yes’ to you, not the ring. Don’t forget that, OK?”

“Wow…” Dan finally said. “Louis, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now let’s get home; dinner should be ready by now.”

Dan checked the time and saw that it was almost 7:30. If anything, they were late for dinner. He got back into the lane and got them home a few minutes later.

Louis stepped out of the car and walked into the house, hearing Dan right behind him. He immediately felt the slight sense of unease and nervousness when he walked in. It was barely there, and for anyone who wasn’t used to the dynamic of the Tomlinson household, it could be easily missed.

The house was noisy enough, but that wasn’t where the clue was.

It was in the way that Lottie kept cracking her knuckles, which she never did. He could see it when Jay kept scratching at her collarbone, or when Fizzy held her phone in her hand, sliding it between her fingertips.

Louis could tell that Dan hadn’t picked up on it yet. Once he said ‘hello’ to Jay and the girls, he sat down calmly in front of the television to watch the news, as he usually did on nights when he was over for dinner.

But this wasn’t an ordinary dinner, and Dan would need to get his shit together and realize that something was going on if he was going to _really_ fit in with this family, in this household.

“Dinner’s ready!” Jay called out a few minutes later.

Louis walked into the kitchen and took his seat in between the twins.

The meal started off normally enough. Once everyone had food on their plates, the different conversations started.

“Mom, don’t forget,” Lottie said, “the last payment for Senior Trip is due next Tuesday.”

She was graduating high school this year, a fact that she wouldn’t let anybody forget. The trip was in March, and it was all that she had talked about since her birthday in August.

“That’s right,” Jay remembered. “How much is it?”

“Two hundred.”

“OK. Just remind me; I’ll write you the check for it.”

“Who’s going on the trip with you this year?” Louis asked.

“Um… Turner. Bilson. Adams…”

“Wait, Mr. Adams is going?”

“Yeah, he’s one of the class advisors.”

Louis chuckled quietly to himself.

“What’s so funny about that?” Jay wanted to know.

“Nothing. Nothing. Just, uh…” he flicked a gaze over to each of the twins, who were both only partially interested in the conversation.

“Just, watch his eyes the day after your free day down there.”

“Why?” Lottie asked.

“Let’s just say… Mr. Adams wore his sunglasses that day, and it was extremely cloudy. He also may have tripped getting off the bus at the park.”

Lottie snorted, holding back her laugh.

Dan nodded once and returned to his food.

“Who was this again?” Jay inquired.

“One of the gym teachers,” Louis answered. “He was a cool dude, but hey… Downtown Disney happens to the best of us.”

“Oh. I see. Well, that puts me at ease about the teachers supervising my child a few hundred miles away.”

“Oh!” Fizzy finally understood. “I get it. He was hung-“

Jay cleared her throat loudly. “Not now, Fiz.” She glanced over at the twins, whose ears had perked up at Jay’s reaction.

The twins, who were only ten, didn’t need to hear about Louis’ teacher being hungover the day after the students were allowed to go to whatever Disney park they wanted.

Louis laughed quietly to himself and returned to the roast beef on his plate.

“When can we go horseback riding?” Daisy asked Dan next. “Do you think we could go this weekend?”

Dan shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Let’s say Saturday? I can come over early in the morning, have breakfast and then we can go.”

“OK.” Daisy nodded enthusiastically.

“You know,” Jay cut in. “It would probably be easier if you were already here in the morning.”

“What, like sleep over the night before?” Dan asked. “Yeah, I could do that, if you want.”

“OK. Or, like, you could sleep over all the time.”

Louis looked across the table at Lottie and Fizzy, who both had small grins on their faces.

“I could. But all my stuff is at my apartment. I’d have to keep going back to get changed and stuff.”

“You could just keep your stuff here, you know,” Jay suggested.

“So I would just have an empty apartment?”

“Right.”

“I don’t get it.”

“You know,” Louis said, “I could stay in the apartment, if you’re worried about it being empty. Or you could just give it to me.”

“Why would I just give you my apartment? Where would I stay?”

“Here,” Jay answered. “You would stay here.”

“What?”

“OK, look. I am trying, and failing, to ask you to move in with us.”

“And Liam and I would take your apartment,” Louis added.

“Louis!” Jay scolded. “Not the important part right now.”

“Wait, you want me to move in?” Dan asked, trying to clarify what had just happened.

“Yes,” the whole family said loudly.

Dan jumped a little, taken aback by the response. “Let me guess. You were all in on this?”

The five children nodded.

“So what do you say, Dan?” Jay wondered. “Do you want to live in this chaos for real?”

“Of course I do! What did you think, that I would say ‘no’?”

Louis snorted and tried to cover it up as a cough.

Dan briefly glared at him before speaking again.

“Nothing would make me happier than to live here,” Dan said.

“Really?” Jay asked.

“Absolutely! I love all… seven… of you,” Dan replied, giving a nod toward Jay’s pregnant belly. “I can’t wait to move in!”

Dan beamed when Jay said, “Well, it’s official, then. We’re officially the Tomlinson-Deakin household!”

The kids all cheered in excitement.

“Well go hug her!” Fizzy encouraged Dan.

Dan nodded and jumped up, walking around the table to where Jay sat.

Jay stood up and couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as Dan wrapped his arms around her.

Then Dan leaned his head down, catching Jay’s lips in a sweet kiss.

“Eww,” the kids all groaned.

Louis shook his head. “Now you’re pushing it, man.”

“Yeah, too far,” Lottie added, wrinkling up her nose.

Jay rolled her eyes and broke the kiss.

“Brats,” Jay said as Dan kissed her on top of her head. “Every single one of you.”

\---

Harry sat calmly on the couch in his living room the next day, waiting until the clock on his laptop said 4:30.

He only had three minutes left until he could click the ‘Submit’ button and hopefully get all six classes he needed for next semester. He wasn’t thrilled at needing to take six classes again, but it was necessary now. He only had eleven classes left to take until he could graduate, and none of the classes were being offered over the winter break. He wasn’t taking the chance of taking five classes next semester only to find out that none of them would be offered in the summer and needing to take six classes next fall, his final semester.

He took out his phone to text Jake to see if he was on his way home. He knew his roommate needed to register for classes today, too, and was surprised that he wasn’t back from his Tuesday afternoon lecture yet.

Right as he started texting, he heard the door to the stairwell bang open. Someone was running down the hallway, and with every step, it got louder, like it was getting closer to Harry’s apartment.

Harry snorted. “There he is.”

Two seconds later, Jake came bursting through the front door. “Shit!” he yelled as he threw his bag to the floor and ran into his room.

“About time,” Harry said, watching the front door close behind him. “You got two minutes.”

“Fucking professor wouldn’t stop talking,” Jake muttered.

He walked out to the living room with his open laptop.

“Thank God I didn’t shut down my computer before I left.”

He sat down on the couch next to Harry and pulled up the school site.

“One minute left.”

“Shut up.”

Jake quickly went to the registration page and plugged in the course numbers for what he needed to take.

“And submit,” Harry commented.

“Fucker.”

A few seconds later, Jake was submitting his selection, too. 

They sat in silence as their computers worked.

After two minutes of agony, Harry got the notification that his classes were all accepted, while Jake was still waiting.

“Still six classes, huh?” Jake noted.

“Yup.”

Harry closed the laptop and put it on the coffee table.

“You know you’re gonna burn yourself out if you keep going like this, right?”

“I’ve done all right so far. It’s already November. I just have another month of classes, and a week of finals, and then the semester’s over.”

“And you have to do it all again when we come back from break.”

“It’ll be worth it when I’m graduated early.”

“I know you want that, but please don’t get yourself sick over this.”

Harry shook his head. “I won’t; I promise. But geez, lighten up. You worry more than my mom.”

“That’s because your mom doesn’t see all the bags under your eyes every day.”

Harry rolled his eyes before letting out a big yawn.

“See?” Jake pressed. “When was the last time you slept more than four hours in a night?”

“I don’t have time for this,” Harry muttered. “Your classes are picked.”

Jake looked down to his computer to see that the notification confirming next semester’s schedule had popped up on the screen.

It was just long enough for Harry to grab his computer and bolt to his room.

When he got there, he shut the door behind him and looked at his To-Do list for the night. It was pretty full, so he decided he’d better get started.

\---

The next afternoon, Zayn got the call about his internship.

He and Perrie were hanging out at her house, trying to figure out what to have for lunch.

Both of them had the day off, and usually, their days off never coincided.

“Do you want to just order pizza?” Perrie finally asked.

Zayn shrugged. “That’s fine. Everything else here needs to be cooked.”

“Yeah, I’m not about that.”

Zayn felt his phone start to vibrate in his pocket, so he pulled it out and saw that it was the gallery that he had interviewed with.

“It’s Brookfield,” Zayn told Perrie.

She looked back at him with wide eyes. The gallery had said that they would be in contact by the end of the week, and it was only Wednesday. Was it a good sign that they were calling already?

“Answer it,” she urged.

He nodded and took a deep breath before sliding his finger across the screen to accept the call.

“Hi, this is Zayn Malik,” he spoke into the phone.

“Hi, Zayn. It’s Ashlynn from Brookfield Gallery. How are you today?”

“I’m doing great, Ashlynn. How are you?”

“Doing fantastic. Listen, I’ll keep this quick, because I’m sure you’re busy today. I’m calling to officially offer you a winter internship with our gallery, effective January 12, 2015.”

Zayn pushed his fist against his mouth to keep from squeaking in excitement.

He gave himself a second to calm down before answering with, “If you’re offering, then, yes. I officially accept. I would love to come work with you.”

“Excellent. Would you be able to come in Monday morning so we could go over all of the details: responsibilities, personal goals, and all that fun stuff? And of course, the paperwork for you to still fill out.”

“Yes, absolutely. What time works for you?”

“Let’s say 10 o’clock. Is that all right?”

“That’s perfect. I’ll see you then,” Zayn said.

“Wonderful. See you Monday.”

“Have a great day.”

“Same to you,” Ashlynn wished.

He hung up then, nearly dropping his phone when Perrie jumped into his arms.

“I’m so proud of you!” she cheered. “I knew you could do it!”

“Holy shit, I can’t believe this. I’m going in Monday morning to talk about everything, and I start January 12.”

“You’re going to kill it, too.”

“You think?”

“Yes! I’m so, so proud of you,” she repeated. “Now we really need to do something to celebrate. What should we do?”

Zayn thought about it for a moment before asking, “Feel like a little road trip?”

\---

Out of the corner of his eye, Niall saw the office door slowly open.

“Knock, knock,” he heard a familiar voice say.

He turned his head to see Zayn and Perrie walking in, smiles on both of their faces.

“No way!” Niall shouted, jumping up to give them a huge hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Had news I wanted to tell you,” Zayn answered, waving to the rest of the staff. “Me and Pez were both off, so I figured we could just come up.”

“Cool. What’s the news?”

“Hang on, let’s go in the Photo office. I want to tell Harry, too.”

Zayn headed to Harry’s office, nodding to Dani that she should also join them.

“Hey, boss,” Zayn greeted loudly from the doorway.

Harry turned slowly at the voice behind him, breaking into a grin when he saw Zayn and Perrie there.

“What’s up, Z?” he asked, sweeping him into a hug. “Hey, Per.”

He gave Perrie a hug, too, before leaning back against his desk. “What’s going on?”

Zayn ushered Dani, Niall and Perrie inside before closing the door behind them.

“I got the internship at the gallery,” he rushed out, unable to hide the information any more.

“Yay!” Dani squealed in excitement.

Niall grinned. “All right, Zayn.” 

“We knew you could do it!” Harry enthused. “Group hug!”

Despite Zayn’s protests, the four of them wrapped their arms around him, showering him with pride and affection.

“You guys are the worst,” Zayn grumbled from the middle of the embrace.

“But you love us more than Liam and Louis and Josh!” Niall joked. “They’re not even here. I know Josh probably has his phone off right now, but did you tell Louis and Liam yet?”

“Yeah. I tried to get them up here, too, but Liam had to work late because he has a new article coming out tomorrow, and he needs to get it finished.”

“He does?” Dani wondered. “I didn’t know that.”

“He said it was even more last minute than the last one, so he only told me because I blew up his phone,” Zayn said, defending his friend. “He told me to let you know, and he’ll call you tomorrow.”

Dani nodded, temporarily satisfied at the response.

“And Louis had to work late because some of the computers crashed, and he volunteered to help get them back up.”

“Louis?” Harry asked confusedly. “ _Louis_ volunteered to stay? He actually offered?”

Zayn held his hands up in surrender. “That’s what he said. You can ask him yourself if you want.”

“No, I believe you. It’s just weird.”

“Agreed.”

“We were actually wondering if you guys might want to have drinks later?” Perrie asked tentatively. “I know you guys have homework and everything, but…”

“No, I can,” Dani said.

“Yeah, we can do that,” Niall replied. “Well, I can. Harry?”

Harry paused, thinking about what homework he had to get done. He still had another chapter to read for his Ethics class, and he needed to do some more research for the speech he had next Tuesday.

But then he looked at his friends, who all looked very hopeful.

“Let’s do it,” he resolved. “We can hang at the apartment.”

Perrie grinned. “Awesome. Um, we’re gonna go grab dinner, and then we’ll stop at the liquor store. You guys will be done by like, nine, right?”

“Should be.” Harry nodded.

“I mean, if our slave driver of a boss lets us leave by then, sure we will,” Niall added.

Dani scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Well get to work, then, Niall.”

Niall huffed. “Well, fine, then!”

He reached behind him and flung the door open, dramatically walking away.

The four of them stared after him, all of them knowing that Niall wasn’t actually mad.

“He’s so weird,” Dani commented with a shake of her head. She walked out of the office and back to her seat.

“Oh, Dani, hang on a sec,” Perrie said, following her. “We have to talk about some stuff anyway.”

Harry smiled after his friends, but shifted uncomfortably when he realized that Zayn was staring at him.

“If you don’t want us to come over,” Zayn started, “just say the word. I’ll tell Perrie I don’t feel well and we need to go home.”

“Of course I want you guys to come over. You drove a half hour to get up here. I’m not about to send you back home.”

“We can go to Dani’s apartment instead. I mean, if that would be better for you-“

“Why does everybody think I can’t hang all of a sudden?” Harry asked, annoyed at the need to defend himself. “What? Because I’m taking six classes or something? First it was my mom, then Jake and now you? Niall and Louis have been making comments for the past month, too, and I just don’t need this, Zayn.”

“Just looking out for you, boss. Don’t want you to drive yourself nuts with this.”

“I’m fine,” Harry insisted. “I promise. I can’t wait to celebrate this with you, Z. Really.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m positive. I’m also positive that I need to get a lot of pictures edited for sports and entertainment in the next two hours, so…”

“I’ll leave you to it. Love you, man.”

“Love you, too, Zayn.”

With a small smile, Zayn returned to the main office.

Harry sighed and sat back down at his desk.

He knew he had to get his work done, but he also really wanted to spend time with his friends for once, instead of time with his notebooks.

He decided he would just wake up early in the morning to finish what he needed to do for his classes.

It wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be up Thursday night!


	12. Breaking Point

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ready for some drama? Here we go!

Zayn got to Brookfield Gallery at 9:48 a.m. The traffic had been pretty light, so he got there much earlier than expected.

He sat in his car, staring at the gallery’s exterior.

It was a single story, brick building with full-length, glass doors and windows. The name ‘Brookfield’ was on the wall to the right of the main entrance in white lettering.

It looked intimidating, and all Zayn wanted to do was turn around and go home.

He looked down at his outfit: a black, button down shirt, khaki pants and black dress shoes. He felt overdressed, and at the same time, not dressed nicely enough.

His mom had assured him repeatedly before he left that he looked great, and that he shouldn’t be too nervous about what would happen today. He already had the position, and this meeting was just to go over requirements and expectations.

He glanced at the clock again and saw that it was 9:53. He figured that going in seven minutes early would be a good impression.

He got out of his car and walked slowly up to the door. He took hold of the handle, pulled, and… nothing.

It was locked.

He pulled on it again and tried not to panic. 

Zayn looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. When he came for the interview, he had walked through this door.

_Am I too early?_

He checked the times on the window next to the door and saw that the gallery didn’t actually open until 4 in the afternoon.

He started wondering to himself if he got the times or the date mixed up, but he was sure he was supposed to be here right now.

“Hi! I’m sorry! I’m here!”

Zayn jumped at the sudden female voice. He turned around and saw a woman running up to him.

She had wild, dark curly hair, tan skin, a small waist and extra long legs.

“I tried to be on time; I’m so sorry,” she said, getting to the door. “I’m Ashlynn. Nice to meet you.”

“Zayn,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“You’re punctual. I like that. Most of us aren’t; you’ll learn that quickly enough.”

“Oh. OK.”

Ashlynn unlocked the door and held it open for him to follow her in. She locked it back up behind them.

“Come with me.”

Zayn followed her down a short, but wide, hallway, which opened into the large, main room.

It had light, hardwood floors and white walls. All around them hung large canvases of surrealist artwork, with bold, bright colors of magenta, gold, lime and cerulean.

Zayn knew that this was the work currently on display, belonging to an artist named R. Evers.

He’d had a brief tour of it when he came for the interview, and remembered it would be coming down in the next few weeks.

Zayn went with Ashlynn down another short hallway, leading into a room smaller than the first, which had more of the artist’s work. These paintings were also surreal, but had more muted tones to them: navy, silver, onyx and jade.

In the back corner was a door marked ‘Employees Only.’

The two of them went through it, and directly on the right was an office with a nameplate on the door that read ‘Ashlynn Ross – Director.’

They walked in; Zayn sat in the zebra print armchair in front of her desk.

“So, Zayn,” she said, “welcome to Brookfield.”

“Thank you. I’m excited to be here.”

“I can tell. What’s with the khakis?”

Zayn looked down at his pants. “I knew I shouldn’t have worn these,” he muttered under his breath.

“Listen; you look fine. But you look a little… preppy. That’s not what we’re really going for here at Brookfield. Can I be honest with you?”

“Please,” Zayn nodded.

“Brookfield is a new gallery, and we’re known for exhibiting trendy, modern art as opposed to classical works.”

“I saw that on the web site. You feature a lot of types of art that I prefer over what I learned about in school.”

“And I was told you gave off that vibe in your interview. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. I had some family issues to attend to.”

“It’s not a problem,” Zayn assured. “Hope everything’s OK.”

“All sorted out now. Thank you for asking, though. Anyway, the girls who interviewed you liked you, and they showed me your portfolio, like they said they would. And I was impressed, which is why you’re here. We want to appeal to a younger audience than some of the other galleries in the area. Of course, we want people to come here, so we have to balance it out with some other traditional exhibits. But our goal is to draw in younger people and hopefully, serve as some sort of platform that gets the next generation interested in art. Make sense?”

“Yeah. A lot of sense.”

“Good. And that’s where you come in. You’ll start off with learning all about the artists that we will be hosting next season. Then, you and the three other interns will work with us in setting up exhibits in the best way possible. One of our interns has a minor in marketing, so she’ll be working more with promotion of the exhibit. But all of you will be providing opinions and feedback while we establish each display.”

Zayn nodded, listening to Ashlynn speak quickly. Luckily for him, he’d been dating Perrie and had known Louis long enough that he was used to absorbing information that was shot at him at a rapid pace.

“Now, the current exhibit runs until December 5, and then we’re closed for the holidays. But the next one starts March 5. As soon as you begin, you’ll be assisting with hanging the art, typing up descriptions and working closely with the artist to make sure everything goes according to plan. And once the exhibit opens, you’ll be required to be here on show nights, answering questions about the art if the artist is unavailable, and also ensuring that everything flows smoothly. Do you have any questions?”

“Um… How should I dress?”

Ashlynn sat back in her chair. “This is just an example, of course, but, try a red sweater, or maybe a red henley. I think red would be a good color on you.”

Zayn mentally agreed. He’d heard that before.

“Black jeans. Skinny, of course. And, you look like the kind of guy who owns a pair of Docs.”

“I do. Black ones.”

“Perfect. Wear those. And push up the sleeves of your shirt. You have tattoos under there?”

Zayn nodded.

“Cool. Show them off. Don’t you think of your tattoos as art?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then put them on display,” Ashlynn stated simply. “I run an art gallery, Zayn. Showing off art is my job.”

Zayn smiled. “I think we’re gonna work out really well.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

\---

“Parking in rear,” Louis read out loud as he passed by their desired building.

“Louis,” Harry warned from the passenger seat. “Don’t start giggling.”

Niall snorted in the backseat before he started laughing. “In the rear! Classic!”

Josh and Louis started laughing right along with him at the innuendo.

Harry shook his head. “You’re such pervs. All of you.”

“Come on, babe, that’s funny,” Louis said through his giggles. “Get it? Parking in the _rear.”_

“Yeah, Louis, I get it,” Harry said, failing to hide his smile any more.

Louis pulled into a parking spot, looking over as Liam parked his car right next to him.

The four of them got out first, waiting for Liam, Dani and Perrie to get out of his car.

“We all set?” Liam asked, locking his car behind him.

“I think so,” Louis answered.

“I have the confirmation number on my phone, just in case,” Perrie added. “We just have to go in and tell them my name, and that should be it.”

“Everyone got their alcohol?” Niall asked.

Niall held a six-pack of Guinness in his hand; Harry had a 25 ounce mangorita and a six-pack of Corona in a paper bag for him and Louis; Perrie and Dani were splitting a bottle of moscato wine; Liam had a few bottles of Sam Adams; and Josh had some leftover bottles of Budweiser.

“Relax, Niall,” Dani said. “We didn’t forget the booze.”

“Not like we really need it to have fun, anyway,” Perrie continued.

“Speak for yourself,” Louis mumbled. As they started to walk toward the building, he added, “I think I’m a good, drunk artist. I think I’ll start this painting and it’ll turn out to be the next da Vinci or something.”

“Or it’ll look terrible,” Josh joked.

“Or that, as well.”

“What are we painting again?” Harry wondered.

“It’s like, a night scene,” Perrie answered. “It’s a lot of black and blue. Like, I think it’s the moon above a little lake, and there are streetlights next to the water, and a city skyline in the back. It looked cool online.”

“Sounds cool,” Dani agreed.

Louis shook his head. “I’m gonna fuck it all up.” 

The boys started laughing. Dani and Perrie rolled their eyes before they joined in.

The seven of them walked into Painting with a Twist. Right by the door was a desk where they were supposed to check in.

“Hi,” Perrie smiled. “Um, I’m Perrie Edwards. I signed up for tonight for seven people?”

The girl at the computer nodded and started typing on the keyboard. “OK…” she said. “It looks like you’re all paid for. Have any of you been here before?”

They all shook their heads.

“OK, so behind you is where you can put your alcohol while you’re painting.”

They turned to see a bunch of silver shelves built into the wall. There were already a few open bottles of wine sitting there, plus several six packs of various beers.

“You can just find your names by the easels, and sit anywhere Perrie’s name is listed. Feel free to start drinking now. The class should be starting in about ten minutes.”

They all nodded at the information.

“Um, where’s Zayn?” Perrie asked curiously. “I just wanted to see him before we actually start.”

The girl scoffed quietly, giving Perrie a not-so-subtle onceover. “Yeah, he’s here. He has a girlfriend, too.”

Perrie cocked her head to the side.

Louis smirked, knowing this would be fun.

“Oh, boo,” Perrie pouted her lips. “I had no idea. What’s her name? I’m sure she’s lovely.”

“It’s something with a P…” the girl thought out loud. She looked to the side, trying to recall the name.

It was obvious when she realized her error.

She froze, and her eyes slowly moved to Perrie’s face.

“Is it Perrie?” Perrie asked sweetly, although it was clear to everyone how fake the sweetness was.

“Sorry,” the girl said. “I didn’t realize…”

“It’s OK. Thanks for having my back, though. That was nice of you.”

“Pez!”

They all turned to see Zayn walking out of the back, drying his hands on a paper towel.

He stuffed the towel into the front pocket of his smock and hurried over to them.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, sweeping Perrie into a hug.

“We wanted to surprise you,” she answered before kissing him.

“Consider me surprised,” he told her when they broke apart. “I can’t believe you’re all here.”

“Pretty excited for this, too,” Liam said.

“Yeah, am I actually going to paint a good picture?” Louis wanted to know.

“If you pay attention and do what I say, then yes, you will do a great picture, Louis,” Zayn grinned.

“Oh, fuck. Well, there goes that.”

They all laughed at Louis’ complete lack of confidence in his own ability to listen.

“I have to go finish getting ready,” Zayn said a moment later. “So, find your seats, get comfortable, start drinking and we’ll start soon.”

After they all said ‘OK,’ Zayn smiled once more and headed to the front of the room, where there was a raised platform. He got up on the small stage and put on a headset before he started to test it. Next to him was an easel that held the finished product, what they would be painting that evening.

“Babe, do you have my bottle opener?” Niall asked Josh as he set his beer on one of the silver shelves.

“Yup.” Josh reached into his back pocket, pulling out a blue opener. He popped the cap of one of his bottles before handing it over.

“Anyone else?” Niall wondered once he was done.

“Here,” Louis called. He took the opener and took the caps off two bottles of Corona. He gave it to Liam when he was finished.

“Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren’t you?” Harry laughed.

Louis just shrugged.

He took Harry’s hand in his own, leading them over to the tables near the back. They found Perrie’s name easily enough. There was one table of five seats that had ‘Edwards’ on all the seats, and there were two more at the table next to that one.

“Let’s sit here,” he suggested.

Harry agreed, and they sat down, right next to a dad with his two teenagers. He opened his drink, taking a long sip before setting it down.

“Rough day?” Louis wondered.

“Not really.”

“OK… Oh, you never told me how course selection went. Did you get everything you needed to take?”

“Louis…”

“Harry, I’m just asking a question. I just want to know if you got all… six… of the classes you insist on taking next semester.”

“I’m not _insisting_ on anything. It’s what I need to do, so that’s what’s happening. I’m taking six classes again in the spring.”

“And you’re sure you can’t take one of them over winter break?”

“Yes, I’m pretty damn sure,” Harry snapped.

Louis’ jaw dropped slightly at Harry’s harsh tone. “Haz…”

Harry pressed his lips together and shut his eyes. “I’m sorry, I… It’s not OK to talk to you like that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s OK,” Louis sighed. “Just…”

“Just what?” Harry asked, slowly opening his eyes.

Louis paused, not wanting to say that he wished Harry would take a break. “I’m glad we could all come out tonight. That’s all.”

“Me, too,” Harry said softly.

“OK, everybody, if you’ll all take your seats, we can get started soon,” Zayn spoke over his headset.

He waited until everybody was sitting down before continuing.

“So, my name is Zayn, and welcome to Painting with a Twist. I hope everybody is ready to create a masterpiece tonight.”

There were a few cheers throughout the small crowd, and Zayn grinned at the reaction.

“If you look around, you’ll see that there are only two other people standing right now. Over there in the red shirt, with long, brown hair, is Sophia.”

Sophia waved quickly to everyone.

“And on the other side, with the short, blonde hair is Madison.”

Madison smiled at her introduction.

“The two of them will be assisting tonight. Meaning, they will be going through the crowd as I instruct you through your painting. They’ll be there if you have any questions, if you need more paint, if you need more time, or, if you need an opinion on your painting. They are here to help you, so if you need any help, please let them know.”

Zayn glanced over at Perrie, who winked at him.

He broke into a large grin, unable to hide his happiness.

“Sorry if I seem a little overexcited tonight, folks. It’s just, my girlfriend’s here tonight.”

He pointed out Perrie.

Louis tried not to laugh at the several women who visibly deflated at the mention of a girlfriend.

“My friends are here, too. They all surprised me, because they’re pretty awesome.”

Some of the people in the crowd turned to look at them, a few of them even going ‘aww.’

Louis grinned and leaned forward in his seat.

Unfortunately, his elbow moved too much, and knocked over one of his beer bottles.

“Oh, shit!” he said loudly as he scrambled to pick it up.

Harry covered his face with his hands in embarrassment, while the others tried to hold in their laughs.

They weren’t that successful.

Zayn sighed on the stage, and shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t know him.”

\---

Two hours later, Louis closely examined his picture. “It doesn’t look like total shit.”

“Nah.” Harry shook his head. “I think it looks all right.”

“I think I made my street lights too big. They look like lollipops.”

“If anyone would like help making final adjustments,” Zayn said from the front, “please reach out to me, Sophia or Madison. Other than that, great work tonight, everyone. And I hope to see you again soon.”

“Do you want to get Zayn to help?” Harry asked Louis as everyone started to pack up and leave.

Louis shook his head. “No, he’s busy. It’ll be all right. This was just for fun, anyway.”

“Is that the beer talking?”

Louis pondered the question before letting out a loud burp. “Probably.”

Harry wrinkled up his nose. “That was gross.”

“Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I know.”

“Boys, grab your pictures,” Liam instructed from his table. “Sophia’s gonna take a group shot of us.”

Harry and Louis looked over and saw the assistant with brown hair holding Liam’s phone.

“We can go up to the stage if you want one with Zayn,” she offered.

They filed up to the platform where Zayn was finishing up a conversation with the man who had been sitting next to Harry and Louis.

“Have a good night, OK?” Zayn told him.

The man nodded and went over to where his kids were waiting for him.

“What’s this?” Zayn asked. “How’d your pictures all turn out? Let me see.”

The seven of them turned their canvases so Zayn could see them.

He inspected them all before saying, “Perrie’s is the best.”

“A little biased there, aren’t you?” Niall scoffed.

“Maybe. Oh, well. Seriously, though, all of your pictures look great. I’m proud of you guys.”

“Nah, you were just a good teacher, man,” Liam complimented.

“Thanks, Li.”

“You’re very welcome.”

“We taking a picture, then?” Zayn guessed, seeing Sophia holding Liam’s phone.

“If that’s OK with you, professor,” Louis joked.

“Oh, jeez.”

“You _were_ very good, Zayn,” Harry assured. “Even if Louis’ lights look like lollipops.”

Louis pouted. “You said they were fine!”

“I’m just kidding, baby.”

“Let’s take this picture before someone gets their feelings hurt,” Josh suggested.

Perrie stood next to Zayn on the stage, holding her picture in front of her. Dani and Liam got on Zayn’s other side.

Louis, Harry, Niall and Josh all lined up in front of the stage.

“OK,” Sophia said. She backed up a few more steps to make sure she could fit them all in the picture. “On three, say ‘cheese.’ One, two, three!”

“Cheese,” all eight of them said, smiling and looking toward the camera.

Sophia snapped the picture, and gave it back to Liam once it took.

“All right, guys, get out of here,” Zayn told them. “We need to do this again soon. It was great having you here.”

“It was all Perrie’s idea,” Dani replied. “She got it all organized for you, Zayn.”

“That’s my girl,” Zayn smiled. He leaned over, kissing her on the cheek.

“You coming over when you’re done?” she whispered in his ear.

Zayn nodded. “Should be about an hour.”

“Awesome.” She kissed him again before turning back to her friends. “All right, troops. Let’s go.”

They all said goodbye to Zayn, giving him last hugs and thanking him again for the class before heading back to their cars and driving to Liam’s house, from where they all carpooled.

Louis looked in his rearview mirror as he drove, smiling at Niall and Josh, cuddled up in the backseat.

He reached over and took Harry’s hand in his own, giving it a light squeeze.

Harry looked over at him, and gave him a soft smile as he lifted their joined hands up to his mouth, kissing the back of Louis’ hand.

They got to Liam’s house in less than twenty minutes, and Louis sighed as he pulled up to the curb, putting his car in park.

Niall and Josh got out, giving them some privacy, and also, so they could say goodbye.

“Can you come up this weekend?” Harry asked after they shut their doors.

“I can, actually. How long can I stay?”

“The whole weekend?”

“Really?” Louis was surprised Harry could spare that much time. Lately, he’d barely been able to talk to Louis on the phone. It was only because Perrie had bought tonight’s tickets over a month ago that Harry had even showed up.

Speaking of Perrie, just then, she tapped on the window and waved goodbye.

“I really want you to come up this weekend,” Harry continued after waving to Perrie, who then got in her car to drive home.

“You know nothing would make me happier.”

“Good. It’s settled, then. I’ll see you in three days.”

“It’s a date.”

Louis leaned across the console, catching Harry’s lips in a soft kiss. “I love you,” he mumbled.

“Love you, too.”

They kissed again, before being interrupted by another knock at the window.

“Break it up,” Liam said, his voice slightly muffled by the glass.

They rolled their eyes, but got out of the car anyway.

Louis told his friends goodbye before giving them all hugs. “We need to do this again. Maybe a Christmas thing?”

“Sounds good,” Dani replied. “Of course, you’re always welcome to come visit the office.”

“Maybe I will. I don’t know how or when, but maybe.”

“Glad to hear that,” Niall said. “Haven’t seen you at the office yet.”

“OK, OK. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Don’t think that doesn’t include you, too,” Niall turned and told Josh. “You need to come visit me and Casey some time.”

“Yes, dear,” Josh responded sarcastically. “Top of my to-do list.”

Niall glared at Josh before shooting out an arm, whacking him on the chest. “Rude.”

“Time to go home,” Liam decided. “Good night, everyone. Get off my lawn now, please.”

“Have a good night, Payno,” Louis said. He gave Harry a quick kiss and said, “love you. This weekend?”

“This weekend,” Harry agreed. “And love you, too.”

Louis winked and said ‘good night’ to everyone before getting in his car.

“Bye,” Josh told Niall after kissing him one more time. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“Bye, everybody.”

“See ya, Josh,” they echoed to him.

And then Josh got in his car to head home, too.

“Bye, Li,” Dani said, kissing him goodbye. “Love you.”

“Love you. Drive safe, OK?”

“I will,” Niall assured him.

They got in the car, Niall driving, Harry riding shotgun and Dani in the back.

“That was a good night,” Harry said as they drove.

Dani agreed. “I’m exhausted, though.”

“Same,” Niall yawned. “I’m gonna crash as soon as I get back to the apartment.”

Dani said that she likely would, too. Harry didn’t say anything.

Niall dropped Dani off at her apartment and waited until she was safely inside before returning to campus.

“You’re not going to bed, are you?” Niall asked Harry as he unlocked their front door ten minutes later.

The apartment was silent. It looked like Jake and Xander had had an early night, too.

“No, I’ve got work to do.”

“Harry, go to bed.”

“Seriously, stop worrying about me,” Harry sighed. “I’ll be fine.”

“Harry…”

“Niall, I already argued with Louis tonight about this shit; please give it a rest.”

“Fine. Night.”

Niall went into his room, shutting the door behind him.

Harry stood there for a minute before going into his dark room.

He flicked the light on, and stared longingly at his bed. With another sigh, he sat down at his desk instead, and pulled out his planner.

\---

On Thursday, Harry walked into his Ethics class and sat down in his normal seat. All around him, though, everybody had their heads in their notebooks, reading over the material they had written, almost like they had a… test.

 _Oh, fuck._ Harry thought to himself. They had a test today. They had a test and Harry had forgotten all about it. Meaning, he didn’t fucking study.

He remembered now. His professor had told them they would have a test on this week’s material right before he left Tuesday’s class.

He had been so excited that day to actually have time to see his friends like a normal person for once, that he had forgotten to write down that he had a test.

He forgot. He fucking forgot a test.

“All right, everybody,” his professor, Dr. Evans, said as he walked in. “Put your notes away, and let’s begin. As usual, once you’re done your test, you are free to leave. Good luck to everyone.”

Dr. Evans started passing out the test, and Harry’s heart was racing so fast he thought it was going to give out.

He was going to fail.

He pulled a pencil out of his bag before setting it on the floor.

The professor set a pile of tests on his desk and said, “Good luck.”

_How did you know I’ll need it?_

Harry took a test and passed the rest of them back.

He put his name at the top and read the first question. It didn’t make any sense to him. He skimmed through the rest of the test, only recognizing a few of the terms on the three pages of it.

It was made of all short answer questions, and there was no way he could bullshit his way toward a passing grade.

On either side of him, he saw people starting to write, and he wished he could join them.

He didn’t even know how to start. He read and reread the questions, hoping that something would click and he could at least start trying to form an actual response, but it was no use.

He was blanking.

Harry attempted to answer questions, scoffing at himself for his own ignorance.

People started finishing the test after about forty-five minutes. One by one, they handed in their test and walked out of the room.

After the first hour, it was just Harry and his professor, and Harry could feel Dr. Evans’ eyes on him.

He sighed. There was no use trying to pretend anymore.

He stood up, picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. Then he grabbed his pencil and the test and walked dejectedly up to the professor’s desk.

“Harry,” Dr. Evans said as he looked through Harry’s half-answered test, “what happened?”

And then Harry broke. All of the annoyances and frustrations of the past few weeks, in combination with Harry’s overall exhaustion and stress level burst inside of Harry’s chest, and he started crying.

Right there, in front of his professor, Harry broke down in tears. He covered his face with his hands in shame, feeling like he was actually being honest for once about how he really felt.

“Harry, tell me what’s going on,” Dr. Evans instructed softly. “I’m guessing you didn’t study?”

“I forgot,” Harry answered tearfully. He wiped his face off, leaving behind red eyes and wet streaks on his cheeks. “I forgot about the test. As soon as I left class on Tuesday, I just… forgot. And that’s all there is to it.”

He sniffled, and wiped his nose.

“That’s not like you, Harry. Is everything OK?”

“No,” Harry replied honestly. “No, it’s not OK. I’m _so_ stressed out. I have work piling up, and I have a job that takes up so much of my time, and my boyfriend’s an hour away, so I _never_ see him. And I’m just so fucking tired. I mean, shit- No, not shit. Fuck, you’re my professor; I’m not supposed to swear in front of you. And, I just did it again.”

“Harry, relax.” Dr. Evans smiled. “I’ve heard a few swears in my day. I’m not a youngster any more. Look at me. I’ve got gray hair, a beard and a beer gut from too much drinking when I was your age. My grandkids think I’m Santa Claus, just without all the red.”

Harry laughed, and had to sniffle his nose again.

“You’re overloading, aren’t you?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah.”

“How’s that working out for you?”

“Not good. It fucking sucks.”

“I get it. Five classes is enough for anyone to take on. Six must be a nightmare.”

“It is. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.”

Dr. Evans looked through Harry’s test again and glanced up at Harry’s red face, like he was pondering something.

“Look, Harry,” he started, “you’re a great student. Your grades have been consistently high in this class, and, if I remember correctly, you’ve had me for a few other classes here.”

“Yes, sir. Um, Mass Media Communication and Persuasive Writing.”

“That’s right. Now, I can give you a choice. I can grade this test right now and give you the grade that it gets, or…”

“Or?”

“Or, you can come to my 1:10 class tomorrow afternoon and take that version of the test.”

“What?” Harry gasped.

“It’s all the same material that you were to study for this test, but with different questions. So, you still need to study everything you were supposed to for today.”

“Oh, my God. Sir, yes, absolutely. I’ll be here.”

“I can only give you partial credit if you take the test tomorrow,” Dr. Evans reminded him. “The highest you can get on the test is eighty percent.”

“That’s totally fine. I promise I’ll study all night tonight and all day tomorrow. I’ll be ready, I swear.”

Dr. Evans nodded. “You’re a smart man, Harry. Don’t blow this chance, OK?”

“I won’t. I really, really won’t.”

“Good.” Dr. Evans crumpled up Harry’s failing test and dropped it in the trashcan next to him.

“Oh, and, you only have an hour tomorrow, instead of the hour and a half you had today. So I suggest you get studying.”

\---

That night, Louis sat on edge at his desk.

The whole office was tense, as the paper was currently waiting for the town councilman to return a phone call.

They were running a cover story in tomorrow’s issue about the allegations made against the councilman saying that he had been embezzling money.

The story was basically written, with space left for quotes from the councilman to enhance the story. Right now, it all read as speculation, but would be ready if the councilman called them back.

The staff had already blown up his office line so much in the past twelve hours that his secretary had finally told them that he would call to make an exclusive comment by five o' clock. It was already after four in the afternoon, so everybody hoped he would be calling in the next hour or so.

The instructions were clear: anybody who answered the call from the councilman was to put him on hold and immediately alert Luke, the writer assigned to the story.

They were to run through the office, scream at the top of their lungs and hang up Luke’s phone – if he was on it – if need be. This story was the top priority in the entire office.

Louis had answered the phone several times today, hoping that it would be the councilman, but had been disappointed to find that it was other sources, coworkers or pizza delivery guys calling instead.

At 4:33, he answered the phone as he usually did. “ _South Jersey Daily;_ Louis Tomlinson speaking.”

“Hi, this is Julie, calling on behalf of Councilman Wyatt. Are you the reporter he is to be speaking with?”

“No, that will be Luke. Give me one moment to transfer you, OK?”

“That’s fine. Thank you.”

Louis hit the ‘Hold’ button and hung up the phone. He got up and hurried over to Luke’s desk, where he was going over his story again.

“Luke, Councilman’s on line two,” he said proudly.

Luke looked at the phone and frowned. “You sure?”

Confused, Louis glanced down at the phone, seeing that line two wasn’t blinking.

“Wait…” He picked up the phone and clicked over to the line, only to be met with a dial tone.

“Did you hang up on him?” Luke asked angrily, realizing what happened.

“Fuck.” Louis hung the phone back up and covered his mouth with his hands.

“You hung up on the fucking councilman?”

“You what?”

Louis and Luke turned to see Nick standing tensely behind them.

“I-“ Louis tried.

“Shut up. Luke, call him back. Now!”

Luke nodded and picked up the phone, quickly dialing the number that he’d memorized hours before.

The three of them stood quietly, hoping that the councilman would answer.

“Yes, hello, this is Luke Hemmings, calling for Councilman Wyatt,” Luke eventually spoke into the phone.

He sat and listened to the voice on the other side of the line.

“Yes, I’m so sorry. Our line cut out, through no fault of ours. I’m hoping the councilman still has time to speak with us. I only have a few questions; shouldn’t take more than a minute.”

He was quiet again, and then a visible look of relief crossed his face. “Thank you so much. Yes, I’ll hold.”

Louis released the breath he had been holding in, feeling himself starting to get lightheaded.

He slowly turned to face Nick, finding a furious stare waiting for him.

“My office,” Nick gritted out. “Now.”

He turned on his heel and stormed off.

Louis glanced at Luke, who was watching him with a pitying look, before following his boss. He walked into the office and shut the door behind him.

Nick was pacing back and forth in front of his desk, and Louis was too afraid to even sit down.

“What kind of idiotic move was that?” Nick exploded. “You fucking hung up on the councilman, which is an incredibly irresponsible thing to do on a normal day, but when we’re waiting for an exclusive comment for what could possibly be the biggest story of the year, it’s something only an imbecile would do. What the fuck, Louis!”

“I’m sorry! I _know_ I hit the hold button before I put the phone down.”

“Clearly you didn’t! You fucking hung up on him! This is the kind of call where you hit the hold button twice, no three times, to make sure it worked correctly. You can’t be so careless about it!”

“Nick, I-“

“Don’t apologize, Louis! You know what? Just because your stepdad knows my boss doesn’t mean you get special treatment around here. You’re expected to do the same level of work as everyone else. So far, you’ve done all right, but this is inexcusable.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re on probation!” Nick yelled.

“What?”

“You fuck up again and you’re fired! If Luke hadn’t have been able to get through to the councilman when he did, you would be out of here right now.”

“Nick, it was a mistake!” Louis tried to help his case.

“I don’t care! You don’t make mistakes like that and expect to be seen as a serious journalist. You want to make it in this industry? You don’t fuck up like that! Ever! Because if you do, there are a thousand people just waiting to take your place.”

Louis bit his lower lip to stop it from wobbling.

“Go home, Louis. You’re not needed here any more tonight.”

Nick sat down at his desk and started working at his computer.

Without another word, Louis left the office. He grabbed his stuff from his desk, ignoring the looks he was getting from his coworkers, and left with what little dignity he had left.

\---

“Is Louis coming up tonight?”

_Shit._

“Louis’ coming up tonight,” Harry remembered. He looked up from his bed, where Niall was standing in his open doorway.

He had spent the last twelve waking hours studying. He’d read his textbook in his room and at the news office. He’d even spent some time in his classes this morning reading through his Ethics notes. He’d barely slept, trying to cram in as much information as he could.

It was already noon, and he was supposed to take the test in an hour.

“Oh, my God, I have so much work to catch up on this weekend.”

“Harry, _take a break._ ”

“I can’t, Niall. I put off so much stuff to study for this test today that I have to catch up on it all this weekend, and I have to make sure I get myself reorganized so I know when all my shit is due over the next month, and-“

“Harry, stop!” Niall yelled.

Harry cut himself off and stared at his roommate.

“Look, I get that you want to get out of here a semester early, but look at yourself. You’re drained. You’re not sleeping; you’re not eating right; you’re working yourself way too hard.”

“So to you, that means that I need to stop working?”

“Just for a day! A weekend would be preferred, but come on, Harry!”

Harry dropped his head to his mattress and let out a long groan.

When he looked up, Niall was still standing there. “Listen, I’m going down to Josh’s for the weekend, like a normal person. I can’t tell you what to do, but _please._ For the love of God, don’t cancel on Louis. I can see in your eyes that that’s what you want to do. Let him come up. At least for the night and let yourself relax.”

Niall backed out of the door and went down the hall.

Harry heard him go into his room.

With a sigh, he looked back at his notebook. He still had twenty more minutes to read before he had to leave to attempt to get a passing grade on the test, and he was going to use it.

\---

Louis got in his car Friday night thanking the stars above that he survived work today.

After yesterday’s showdown with Nick, Louis had gone into his job this morning with his head down, only speaking when spoken to. There was no doubt that the majority of his coworkers had heard their argument, and each person who did probably had his or her own opinion on it.

He didn’t want to talk about it. In fact, he didn’t want to think about anything except going up to see Harry tonight. He needed time with his boyfriend now more than ever.

He had to make a pit stop first. He’d meant to bring his overnight bag with him when he left the house this morning so that he could go up to campus straight from work.

However, in his haste to hurry up and get to work so he could hurry up and leave, he forgot the bag. So now he had to run home and get it before driving up.

He sent Harry a quick text telling him the plan, and started the car.

He drove home and parked outside of his house.

Louis was halfway up the lawn when his phone started ringing.

“Hey, you OK?” Louis asked, answering the phone.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Harry replied on the line. “Just wanted to catch you before you left.”

“Good timing. I’m about to walk into my house now.”

“Oh, um…”

“Harry, what’s wrong?”

“Look, babe. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come up this weekend.”

“What are you talking about?” Louis wondered. “I just have to grab my bag from my room and I’m on the road.”

“I know. But, I just have to get a lot done this weekend for school. It’s too important to slack off on.”

“Are you serious? You told me three days ago that you really wanted me to come up.”

“I know. But, Louis, I… fuck, I messed up.”

“What do you mean, ‘you messed up’?”

Louis sat down on his front step, not wanting to go inside the house yet.

“I forgot a test, Louis,” Harry admitted.

“Forgot? Like, forgot what was going to be on it?”

“No, I mean I forgot that the test even existed. Evans mentioned it on Tuesday, but because I was so excited to see you and everybody else, I forgot all about it, and didn’t study. So I walked into class yesterday without a clue. I felt like such an idiot.”

“So what happened?” Louis asked.

“I basically broke down in front of him. Like, full on crying, with tears everywhere. So he let me come in to his 1:10 class today and take the other version of the test with them. But today’s class was only an hour, while my usual class is an hour and a half, so I had less time today to do it. Plus, I had to cram over the last day and a half, so who knows how I actually did.”

“Well thank God he let you retake it.”

“I know,” Harry agreed. “I don’t know how to thank him enough. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I couldn’t. Lou, I _know_ I failed it when I first took it yesterday.”

“I’m sure you didn’t fail.”

“I did. I read the first question and just blanked. There was no hope for me after that; I just crashed and burned, right then and there.”

“Well, it all worked out, didn’t it? I’m sure you did fine today.”

“I think I did, too. But that can’t happen again. There’s no way it’ll work out like that twice. That’s why you can’t come up this weekend.”

“Harry, I love you, but what does you retaking a test today have to do with me coming up this weekend?”

“Because I put off work to study for the test so now I have to catch up on that,” Harry said. “Plus, I need to use this weekend to get organized. I need to go through all the syllabi for my classes and notes I’ve taken and make sure that I’m not going to forget another test or project. Today was lucky; like I said, it’s nearly impossible that I’ll have that kind of luck again.”

“Harry, you’re not making any sense. Why can’t I just come up tonight and leave tomorrow? Or Sunday morning? Is it really going to take all weekend for you to check your planner for the millionth time?”

“Rude. And no, that won’t take all weekend. But some of the other work might. Besides, you and I both know that once you get here, I’m not going to let you leave easily.”

“So that means I have to go another weekend without seeing you? Harry, at this rate, I won’t see you for another two weeks. Maybe.”

Harry sighed. “Babe, I know this sucks, but you have to understand-“

“I’m trying to understand, but all I’m getting out of this is that you don’t want to see me because you fuc-“

“ _Don’t_ finish that sentence, Louis,” Harry growled. “I didn’t ‘fuck up.’ I made a mistake. I forgot, because I’m so stressed out with everything going on.”

“And I’m sorry for that, Harry. I really am. I wish I could take one or two of those classes for you just so I could alleviate some of that stress. But come _on._ There needs to be a limit to how much time you dedicate to school. You can’t study 24/7, Harry. It’s not good for your sanity. Can’t you see that?”

“Of course I see that! I’m not stupid, Louis.”

“I never said you were!” Louis shot back, his voice starting to get louder.

“So what are you saying, Louis?”

“I’m saying that you’re my boyfriend, I love you and I want to spend time with you.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” Harry snapped. “You’re acting like it’s been a year since you’ve seen me. We saw each other three days ago.”

“Yeah, for like, two hours at an art studio with six of our friends. When was the last time we were alone? And in the same room, not talking on the phone or over Skype.”

Harry hesitated, his silence unbearably loud over the phone.

“See?”

“Shut up! I’m thinking!”

“That’s what I mean! You shouldn’t have to think about it! For the record, it was Halloween weekend, when we took my sisters trick or treating. And you left Saturday afternoon because you had to get back to campus to work on homework.”

“Louis…”

“And the time before that,” Louis continued, “was the first weekend in October, for Jake’s birthday. And most of that weekend was spent with your roommates, because there is no privacy in those apartments.”

“OK, Louis! I get it! I’m a terrible boyfriend. You don’t have to keep rubbing it in.”

“Harry, you’re not a terrible boyfriend! You’re just stressed beyond belief, and I wish you would realize that you need to slow down a little bit. You need to take a break.”

“I can’t take a break! I have too much to do!”

“I know that, Harry!”

“So stop trying to make me feel like shit!”

“I’m not trying to make you feel like shit! I just want you to remember that you can’t operate on three hours of sleep a night and endless hours of homework and studying. You’re gonna kill yourself. Or get sick from exhaustion or dehydration or whatever else.”

Neither one of them spoke for a few minutes, each of them just waiting for the other to make the first move.

“I have to go,” Harry finally said. “I have work to do.”

“Harry, come on. You’re not really going to do homework on a Friday night.”

“Maybe not. Maybe I’ll just go to bed, since you and everybody else are so worried about my sleep habits.”

“Harry-“

“ _No,_ Louis. I’ve worked way too hard all semester just to let myself get derailed now because of one missed test. I’m spending the next two days getting organized, doing what needs to be done and attempting to get ahead on what I can. It sucks that I can’t see you this weekend, but it has to happen right now. I’m sorry.”

“Harry!”

“I have to go,” Harry reiterated. “I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” He hung up, not giving Louis another chance to respond.

Louis pulled the phone back to stare at it, unable to believe that his boyfriend had just hung up on him. His phone still in hand, he clenched his fists and let out a long, frustrated groan. It may have been more of a growl, but Louis didn’t care.

He dropped his phone to the step where he sat and dragged his hands down his face. He couldn’t believe the two of them had just fought like that. They hadn’t fought that way since the weekend after Valentine’s Day, when they had been caught by Aiden and Jake in Harry’s dorm room.

He was also having trouble believing that the two of them had reached this point: having screaming matches over the phone because they were too busy to talk in person and had allowed their annoyances to build up until they just exploded at each other.

He thought that he and Harry had been through enough to not let that happen to them. As long as they had been dating, they’d always been able to talk about anything, but Louis supposed he was wrong.

He decided to give Harry his space this weekend. He knew that they would make up soon, but it bothered him that he didn’t know when, and definitely didn’t have a clue as to when he would even talk to Harry next.

Louis ran his hands through his hair, his fingers lightly scratching at his scalp, before eventually deciding to go inside. He didn’t need his stuff anymore, so he might as well go get comfortable in his sweats for the night.

He picked up his phone and unlocked the front door, walking inside.

From the moment he stepped in, it was clear that the whole family had heard Louis’ argument with Harry.

The whole neighborhood had probably heard, to be honest.

Jay, Dan and all four of Louis’ sisters sat around in the living room. His sisters were trying to keep their attention focused on the television. Dan was glancing between the tv and Louis’ tense form. Jay was watching Louis carefully, looking for any signs of a nervous breakdown.

Louis stood in the doorway just long enough to process all of this before pushing the door shut behind him and going up to his room.

No one called after him as he went inside, closed the door and flopped down on his bed. He stared up at the ceiling, feeling the tears welling up in his eyes, but not falling.

A few minutes later, he heard a soft knock at the door. He didn’t say anything, already knowing it was his mom, and she was going to come in whether he told her to or not.

Sure enough, after knocking on the door once more, Jay pushed the door open, peeking inside.

“I’m sorry,” was all she said.

Louis nodded his head in acknowledgement, sniffling his nose.

Jay came further into the room and closed the door.

“Louis, do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly.

He shook his head.

Jay sat down on the bed next to her son, watching him with a sympathetic stare. “I’m sorry, sweetie.”

“I didn’t even get to tell him about what happened yesterday. He thinks he’s stressed? He has no idea what real stress is like in the real world.”

“Louis-“

“He didn’t even say ‘I love you.’”

The first tears fell from Louis’ eyes then, and just didn’t stop.

“Oh, baby…”

“He just _hung up_ on me, Mom,” Louis blubbered through his tears. “He didn’t say he loved me before he hung up, and I just…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence, because he broke down, the tears just streaming from his eyes.

Jay wrapped her arms around her son, holding him closely as, for the first time since he was a baby, he cried himself to sleep.


	13. The Last Straw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's been three weeks since my last update, and once again, I'm so sorry!  
> But the good news is, the fic exchanges I'm involved in have slowed waaayyyy down, so I should be able to update more regularly. We'll see. Fingers crossed!  
> Um, so this chapter has some more angst, as if the last one didn't have enough for you.  
> Enjoy!

Louis walked into Ratelli’s, the pizza place one town away, on Sunday afternoon.

Niall had texted him the night before, asking Louis if he would want to meet up with him and Josh before Niall headed back to campus.

Louis had readily agreed, always up for a chance to see his friends.

Unlike his boyfriend.

He and Harry hadn’t spoken all weekend, and even though Louis had told himself he would give Harry his space, it still hurt that Harry hadn’t tried contacting him either.

He found Niall and Josh in a booth in the back corner of the restaurant. They were laughing about something, and Louis found himself feeling envious.

Niall and Josh were just as long-distance as he and Harry were. Why couldn’t his relationship have happy moments like theirs?

Louis couldn’t remember the last time he and Harry had had an enjoyable, stress-free conversation.

But, of course, Niall was less busy than Harry was.

Louis walked over to his friends and plopped down into the opposite side of the booth.

“How goes it, gentlemen?” he asked.

“Hey, Lou!” Josh greeted. “How are things?”

Louis shrugged. “Oh, you know… Boss still hates me; Harry’s slowly driving me insane. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Well, let’s not start our lunch by venting about Harry,” Niall said. “Tell me about Nick. He can’t possibly still hate you. Not that he ever did, Louis.”

“Well, if he only mildly disliked me before, he hates me now.”

“Why?” Josh wondered.

“Did I tell you about Thursday night?”

Niall and Josh shook their heads.

“Right,” Louis realized. “I wouldn’t have. Um… I fucked up. Big time.”

He quickly told them the story of Thursday night and how he hung up on the councilman while the entire office waited for his phone call.

“OK, you made a mistake,” Niall said when Louis finished. “It happens.”

“Not like that.” Louis shook his head. “Not something that big.”

Niall sighed, not sure what else to tell his friend.

“But, I think I know why Nick had, or, I guess, _has_ it out for me.”

“Why’s that?” Josh asked.

“When he was yelling at me and basically ripping me a new one, he mentioned something about Dan and how he knew someone at the office. I guess he resents how I got the position.”

“By working your ass off; that’s how you got the position,” Niall told him.

“Yeah, but Dan-“

“Fuck Dan. Not actually,” Niall said, shooting a look at Josh. He was positive his boyfriend would have some kind of sarcastic remark. “Dan may have gotten you the interview, but _you_ got yourself the job. They didn’t have to hire you just because of Dan. You know that’s not how the hiring process is supposed to go, right?”

“Yeah,” Louis replied softly.

“So, you’re fine. You deserve to be there; just show Nick how much. You might have to do some sucking up for a little while, but you’ll get there.”

Sometimes Louis forgot just how motivational Niall could be. It wasn’t always in the most traditional sense, but it was usually the kick in the ass that Louis needed.

“Thanks, Niall.”

“You’re very welcome. Now, about that other thing…”

Louis sighed. “Did you order food yet? Because this could take a while.”

“Yeah, we got two pizzas and an order of cheese fries,” Josh answered. “One plain pizza and one pepperoni.”

“OK. Well, um, let’s see. How to start this?”

“Harry’s still running himself too thin?”

“Yes,” Louis and Niall replied at the same time.

“He’s gonna burn himself out by the end of the semester,” Niall continued. “There’s just so much going on.”

“You can say that again,” Louis said. “And I get it. I really do, it’s just, he can’t take it out on me. I didn’t _do_ anything. I mean, I don’t even get to see him when I’m supposed to.”

“Didn’t you have plans to go up this weekend?” Josh asked.

“Yup. And I’m sitting here with you guys. You can see what happened there.”

Niall shook his head. “I knew he was gonna do that. Not that that makes it any better, but I promise I told him not to blow you off.”

“Thanks. I wish he had listened, though. God, we needed this weekend. Just so we could de-stress and just, _be_ together, you know what I mean?”

Niall and Josh just watched him sadly, feeling sorry for their friends’ struggles.

“I don’t- I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do next.”

“You just have to be there for him,” Josh answered.

“I tried! He didn’t let me.”

“Not in that way. Just be there for him to vent to, but don’t say anything back. If Harry is ranting about school, he doesn’t want to hear ‘I told you so.’”

“I never said ‘I told you so’!”

“I’m sure you didn’t, but maybe to him, it feels like it? Because he’s probably having those same thoughts. Thoughts like, ‘Why did I do this to myself?’ or ‘What was I thinking?’”

“I see your point,” Louis admitted. “It’s just so bad. I don’t even know what to say anymore. I tried to talk to him about school, since that was the whole reason he was blowing me off, and we just wound up screaming at each other over the phone on Friday.”

“Screaming?” Niall asked.

“Yeah. Like, literally just yelling at the top of our lungs because he told me I couldn’t come up to visit. It’s just so bad, and, I- I can’t handle the arguing any more. It’s too much. I knew this year was going to be stressful, but I never imagined this.”

The three of them sat in silence for a moment, before Louis broke it by asking, “All right, enough about me. I’ll figure this out… Josh, how’s CSN?”

“It’s pretty great,” Josh answered.

“More than great,” Niall cut in. “Tell him what’s happening in a few weeks.”

“Um… The week of December 8 is our final evaluation. And, the week after that, they’ll be letting us know if they want to keep any of us on as a real employee.”

Louis’ jaw dropped. “That’s so exciting! You’ll totally get offered a job there!”

“You haven’t even seen any of the work I’ve done.”

“So? We were three-year editors together, man; I know how you work.”

Josh grinned. “Thanks, Lou.”

“Of course. Do you know where you might go?”

“Well, I hope to go work for the Union, but I know that there will be space opening up with the Sixers. If they offer me that, then I’ll take it.”

“But you hate basketball,” Niall said.

“If I’m getting paid for it, I will _love_ basketball.”

“Very good point,” Louis agreed.

“Look, all I’m saying is, if they offer me anything, I will absolutely take it. I can try to change departments later, but for now, if they want to keep me, I won’t say ‘no.’”

“Of course you won’t. It’s all about getting your foot in the door.”

“See? Listen to Louis. A real professional in our presence.”

Niall snorted. “A real professional. Please. His mom still calls him ‘Boo Bear.’”

“It’s a childhood nickname!” Louis snapped.

Niall and Josh laughed at Louis’ reaction, getting them both a glare in return.

“Didn’t your mom ever teach you not to do that with your face, otherwise it’ll get stuck that way?” Josh joked.

“No.”

“Aww, you missed that lesson growing up? I’m sorry, Boo Bear.”

Louis sighed. “I need new friends.”

\---

Niall got back to campus later that night to an unsurprisingly loud apartment.

He walked into the living room to find Jake and Xander screaming at each other about a play that Jake was doing in their FIFA match.

Niall shook his head and dropped his stuff in his room before going to check on Harry.

He expected to find his other roommate with his nose in a book.

Instead, he found Harry asleep at his desk, his forehead resting on one folded arm and the other draped across the surface.

In his outstretched hand was his cell phone, still lit up. Niall was sure he could hear Harry snoring, and he contemplated waking him up so he could sleep in a more comfortable position.

Eventually, Niall decided against that, knowing that if he woke Harry up, he would just go back to studying instead of actually getting some sleep.

So, Niall just stood there for a minute before his curiosity got the best of him.

He looked at the screen of Harry’s phone, seeing that Harry’s iMessage with Louis was still open.

The last message sent was from Friday, and it was from Louis. It read, “ ** _hey, babe. Gotta run by my house real quick then I’ll be up. I’ll see you soon. I love you._** ”

Niall read the message again, realizing that the two of them must’ve spoken on the phone after this was sent. He also came to the sad understanding that Harry had been reading his messages with Louis, and may have been trying to figure out what to say before he passed out.

He took a step back and looked down at his roommate. Even while asleep, Harry looked worn out.

On the drive up to campus, Niall had started thinking of a way to help Harry and Louis. After seeing how defeated Louis had seemed at lunch, and now that he saw how Harry didn’t even know what to say to his own boyfriend, he decided to put his plan into effect. 

He needed to text Louis first, and he would talk to Harry tomorrow.

He quietly exited the room, flicking off the light on the way out.

“He still asleep?” Xander asked as Niall sat down in the armchair.

“Yeah,” Niall answered.

“Yeah, I went in there before we started playing, and found him face down at the desk.”

“Well, he’s a little better now. He at least has his arm under his head.”

“I guess that’s good. You want to play winner?”

“Sure,” Niall said.

While Jake and Xander finished their game, Niall took out his phone, trying to decide what to say to Louis.

\---

Harry jumped when he felt something pinch his thigh.

He looked down at his lap and followed his gaze to the left, where Cher was raising her eyebrows at him.

Harry looked out to the other editors, most of whom were staring at him. They were at the Monday meeting, and he must’ve zoned out.

Harry quickly cleared his throat before asking, “Sorry, what?”

Niall bit his lower lip as Casey sighed and repeated what she said.

“I said that the men’s soccer team has the championship game on Thursday. We’re going to need someone reliable there to make sure the pictures get done on time and will immediately be ready for publication. Can you get somebody out there?”

“Oh. Sure, no problem.”

He made a note to talk to whoever showed up at tonight’s meeting, which would be the last one before Thanksgiving break.

Thank God.

Casey went over the remaining stories in the Sports section, and then the editors got up to get their weekly pizza.

“You all right, man?”

Harry shifted in his spot in line to see Niall standing behind him, watching him carefully.

“Yeah,” Harry answered briefly. He turned back around to wait for the line to move.

“You sure? You kind of blanked out there for a little while.”

“Was it really that long?”

“Kind of. Casey had to call your name like, three times.”

Harry sighed. “Oh. Sorry.”

“It’s OK. Just wanted to make sure you were all right. I didn’t get to talk to you last night when I got back.”

“Yeah, I must’ve just crashed. I don’t know what happened.”

“Oh, you don’t?”

“Niall…”

“Just saying. I mean, I know you told Louis not to come up this weekend, so I hoped you would’ve gotten a lot of work done.”

“Did he tell you that?” Harry wondered. 

“Yeah, he did. He told me and Josh when the three of us got pizza yesterday.”

Harry looked back, and, in a slightly offended tone, said, “You guys got pizza yesterday?”

“Yeah. I figured that since I was in the area, the three of us could hang out for a little while before I came back to campus.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. See, it is possible to see each other for just a day.”

Harry briefly glared at Niall before turning around to get his pizza.

“He misses you, you know.”

“What? You think I don’t miss him?”

“No, I know you do. That’s why I wish you would make more time for him; even if it’s just for a few hours.”

“Are you trying to hint at something? What do you want me to do?”

Harry started walking toward his office, hoping to escape his roommate for a few minutes before the writers showed up.

But it was no use. Niall followed him in there.

“I would like for you to make time for your boyfriend. That’s all; I promise. You’d be surprised at what a few, calm hours can do.”

Harry watched Niall’s face for a minute before letting his gaze drop down to the floor.

“And maybe it could be this weekend? Next week, we have Thanksgiving break, and you’ll be at home for five days, making the distance between you guys two hours instead of one. It could be good.”

Niall stepped out of the room. “Just think about it, OK?”

Harry leaned back against his door and looked out to the main office. He immediately made eye contact with Tyler, who had been looking his way.

When that happened, Tyler looked down at the table.

Harry just took a deep breath and returned to his seat. The meeting was about to begin.

\---

**_Louis: Niallllllllll. I’m stuck in traffic. There was a big fucking accident on 295. Find out how much longer Harry’s staying at the office.  
_**

**_Niall: Hang on._ **

**_Niall: I just asked him. He said he’ll probably be here until 9._ **

**_Louis: good. Hopefully I’ll be there by then._ **

**_Niall: If not, just come to the apartment. It’s not like you’re not welcome._ **

**_Louis: yeah, but I’d rather be at the office for a little bit. Who else is there?_ **

**_Niall: Almost everybody right now. But Casey will be leaving soon. KJ and Hurley mentioned leaving soon, too. Cher left already. She didn’t feel well. When you get here, it’ll probably be me, Harry, Dani, El, Leigh-Anne and Tyler._ **

**_Louis: ok. Traffic just started moving. I’ll text you when I get there so you can let me in._ **

**_Niall: You got it. See you soon._ **

\---

 _That was random,_ Harry thought to himself as Niall left his office on Wednesday night.

His roommate had just asked what time Harry thought he would be leaving, as if it wasn’t the same time every week.

Harry shrugged it off, and returned to what he had been doing: editing photos for the Sports section.

Once he was done those, he had to work on pictures for Entertainment, and then the ones for News.

It was getting toward the end of the night, and judging by the lack of noise coming from the main office, he figured there weren’t many people left out there.

As he finished the one he was working on, he heard a knock at the door.

He turned to see Tyler standing there, holding a flash drive.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Tyler asked.

“Sure.”

“Um, I have this Photoshop assignment for my multimedia class, and I can’t get it just right. Could you help me?”

“What kind of assignment?” Harry wondered.

“It’s a collage, but there are some pictures that I can’t fix the edges of.”

Harry shrugged. “Let me take a look.”

Tyler plugged his flash drive into the back of Harry’s iMac.

Once the folder opened, he found the assignment and brought it up on the computer.

“So this one was supposed to be a sports collage,” Tyler explained as Harry looked at it.

“I see what you mean about the edges not blurring right.”

“Yeah. Like here,” Tyler said, pointing to the left side of the collage. “This one, with the guy kicking the soccer ball, just isn’t meshing with the other one.”

Harry studied the picture before deciding, “the color balance is off. Maybe if we adjust it, it’ll look a little cleaner?”

Tyler nodded. “OK. I’ll try anything at this point.”

“Well, grab a chair, you can try to fix it.”

Tyler went out to the main office and grabbed a chair, wheeling it into Harry’s office.

As he did, the chair pushed against the door, and it slowly swung shut.

“Oh,” Tyler noticed. “Sorry.”

“It’s OK. I’ll get it later.”

Tyler put his chair next to Harry’s and took the mouse in his hand.

Harry sat by and watched as Tyler started clicking all over the screen, working slowly on the soccer photo.

“Oh, and what about the levels?” Harry asked. “If you mess with those a little bit and gave it more contrast it would look sharper.”

“Oh, yeah!” Tyler agreed, remembering what his professor had told him in class.

Tyler got to work, and as he did, he leaned forward a little more, resting his arm on Harry’s desk.

They sat there for about ten minutes, the only sound in the room coming from Tyler clicking the mouse.

Until Tyler asked, “So, how’s Louis?”

Harry looked at him with a skeptic stare.

Tyler shrugged a shoulder. “Just making small talk; I swear.”

Harry still wasn’t convinced, so Tyler said, “You don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want. I know things have been rough for you.”

Harry caved. “Why would you think things are rough for us?”

“I mean, you’re taking all these classes, and he has a full-time job. It’s probably tough keeping everything together.”

Tyler kept his gaze on the computer, not even looking at Harry as he spoke.

“Plus, I kind of heard what you said to Niall on Monday. It just sucks that you guys can’t spend that much time together.”

“Yeah, well… We make it work.”

Tyler hummed in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything else until he finished the assignment a few minutes later.

“What do you think?” Tyler asked. He sat back in his chair and stretched his left arm out, dropping it on the back of Harry’s chair.

“How about if you crop this one a little more,” Harry suggested, pointing to a basketball picture in the lower right corner.

“How?”

“Let me show you.”

Harry put his hand on top of Tyler’s and guided him through using the Crop tool, showing him exactly what he could cut out to make the photo stronger.

“Like that,” Harry concluded, moving his hand back.

“That looks good. I might get an A on this one!”

Harry laughed. “I’m sure you’ve done fine this semester, Tyler.”

“I guess. But this one is my best one yet. It’s all because of you.”

“That’s definitely not true,” Harry laughed again.

“No, really. It is.”

Tyler placed a hand on Harry’s thigh, where it rested for a minute.

“I don’t know how to thank you, Harry.”

“Tyler…”

Tyler started inching his hand up.

“Louis doesn’t know how lucky he is to have you, you know.”

It was starting to make Harry really uncomfortable, so he said, “Tyler, stop it.”

“But you already know that, don’t you? That he doesn’t know how lucky he is?”

Just as he grabbed Tyler’s hand to stop it from going any further, he heard, “What the fuck?”

Harry and Tyler whipped around to see Louis standing in the now open doorway.

“Louis.” Harry smiled. “You’re here.”

“Yeah, for no fucking reason, it looks like.”

Harry frowned as Louis walked off.

“What-?” he started to ask, before he realized that Louis had just caught Harry, alone, in a room with Tyler. Tyler’s arm had been around Harry’s chair and his hand had been moving up his thigh.

Plus, at the moment that Louis walked in, it probably looked like they were holding hands. _And_ they had the door closed.

It looked bad. _Really_ bad.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Harry muttered, pushing Tyler off him.

“Harry-“

“Don’t,” Harry warned.

Tyler’s eyebrows raised at Harry’s menacing tone, and he stayed silent.

Harry ran after Louis, seeing his boyfriend already down the hallway and about to walk out of the building.

“Louis!”

Harry kept going, and followed Louis outside. He was hit with the cool, nighttime air and wished he’d grabbed his jacket.

“Louis, stop!” Harry called after his boyfriend.

He shot a hand out, grabbing onto Louis’ arm.

“What the fuck was that?” Louis asked as he turned around, pulling his arm away from Harry. “What the fuck, Harry? I come up here to apologize and instead, I find you alone with fucking Tyler?”

“Louis, what are you doing here?” Harry exclaimed.

“ _That’s_ what you’re asking me? You want to know why I’m here instead of explaining whatever the fuck I just walked in on?”

“That? That was nothing!”

“Didn’t look like nothing.”

“Well, it was,” Harry insisted.

“What were you even doing in there with… _him_?”

“Tyler? He wanted help with his Photoshop assignment. It was no big deal!”

“Please,” Louis scoffed. “Of course it was.”

“Louis, don’t start.”

“Start what? Reminding you that Tyler wants you?”

“Louis,” Harry groaned. He ran his hands over his face before adding, “Please, can we not?”

“Oh, no, we will. Have you not noticed that Tyler would like nothing more than to fuck you?”

“Of course I’ve noticed! I’m not blind!”

“So why were you alone with him?”

“Because he needed help with his assignment! That’s why! I wasn’t gonna tell him ‘no.’”

“Why not?” Louis asked. “I would’ve.”

“I know you would’ve, but I’m not like you.”

“And how’s that?”

“Rude! You know you are, too. But since I still have to work with him for the rest of this year _and_ next semester, I’m not trying to make it awkward in the office.”

“Have you been talking about me in the office?” Louis wanted to know.

“What?”

“Have you? Because he’s been dying for a chance with you for months. Maybe you said something, and he took that as a cue to take his chance tonight.”

“Don’t try to pin this on me.” Harry rolled his eyes. “I’m not responsible for what he does. If I was, I never would’ve had him come into my office.”

“So why was the door closed, then? If you didn’t want him in there.”

“Why was-? I don’t- Louis, I didn’t tell him to shut it! What do you want from me? If you want me to say that I’m cheating on you or something, you’re not gonna get that, because I would never do that to you!”

“Of course I don’t think you would ever do that.”

“Really? Because it’s starting to feel like you don’t trust me without you around. Is that it?”

“I trust you, Harry!” Louis assured. “I trust you more than anyone in the world. It’s _him_ I don’t trust!”

“So what is the problem? Like, I don’t understand what…” He let out a long groan. “I don’t need this right now, Louis.”

“Need what?”

“This! This bullshit! I trust you, and you trust me. So why are we arguing like this?”

“Because that’s what we do now,” Louis said. “Apparently, we’re the couple that fights instead of having civil conversations.”

“And you’re OK with that?” Harry asked.

“No, I’m not OK with that. But if this is the only way that we’re gonna get our actual issues out there on the table, then this is how it has to be.”

Harry rolled his eyes again. “What _actual issues_? What, I’m tired and stressed out, and you… What? Can’t find an apartment fast enough?”

“No, I…” Louis stared at Harry, surprised at his mocking tone. And then he remembered: he had never actually told Harry about what happened at work on Thursday.

“Harry, I’m on probation at work.”

Harry took a step back at the revelation. “What? Why?”

“Yeah, I’m on fucking probation. The day you fucked up and forgot your test, I fucked up, too. I hung up on a councilman, and we had been waiting all day for his call. I fucking _hung_ _up_ on him. And because of that, I’m on probation.”

“Louis,” Harry spoke quietly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Because you didn’t fucking ask!” Louis shouted. “You never fucking ask! You don’t ask about my job or the girls or the apartment. Did you even know that Dan’s moving in? Did you know he’s trying to find out how to break his lease early and give his place to me and Liam? Or that the engagement ring will be ready the first week of December? Or that the gender reveal for the baby is going to be next month, and I was supposed to invite you, but because we haven’t spoken all week, I haven’t been able to? Did you know all of that?”

Harry bit his lower lip as tears lined his eyes. He didn’t know any of that about Louis’ life, and he should have.

“Exactly,” Louis said, his own voice getting husky. “You didn’t know that, because whenever we’re together, we talk about you. You and your ridiculous schedule and your stress levels and course selection and everything else. And it’s not fair.”

Harry took a shaky breath, watching Louis wipe at his teary eyes.

“God, none of this is fair.”

Harry tried to apologize. “Louis, I’m sorry.”

“I _know_ you’re sorry!” Louis replied, tearing up even more. “I know you are! Just stop saying that you’re sorry, because this isn’t your fault. But it’s not my fault, either, and this just isn’t working.”

Harry froze, feeling his chest get heavy like it always did when he was about to break down.

“What- What do you mean it’s not working?”

Louis stared at Harry for a moment before realizing the implications of what he just said.

“Shit. No, Harry, that’s not what I meant.”

“So what did you mean?”

“I meant, this bullshit that we’re doing. The arguing, and going days without talking and feeling like we’re walking on eggshells around each other when we are together. _That_ is not working.”

Harry shrugged helplessly. “What do you want me to do, Louis? I still have two more weeks left of the semester, and then I’ll have finals to study for. I have three more weeks of this, and then I do it all again in January.”

“I know…” Louis sighed.

The two of them stared at each other for what felt like forever. Neither of them knew what to say, knowing that, in regards to Harry’s busy schedule, nothing was going to change.

Meaning, their relationship was going to stay just as tense as it was.

“I’m going home,” Louis finally said.

“You’re going home? But, you just got here.”

“I know. But, I’m _tired_ , Harry. I’m just…” He took a deep breath. “I need to go home.”

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but because Louis wasn’t even looking at him as he spoke, he couldn’t.

“OK,” he eventually replied.

Louis nodded his head and spared him a glance. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Harry didn’t speak, and instead, watched Louis turn around and head toward the parking lot.

As soon as he saw Louis get into his car, it hit him like a ton of bricks.

Louis didn’t say ‘I love you’ before he left.

Harry’s lower lip started to tremble as he realized it, but he held in his tears. He had to go back into that office; he still had pictures to finish editing for the night. He didn’t want to start crying now. He would never stop.

Instead, he held his head up high and walked back inside the building.

He avoided eye contact as he entered the main office, though he could feel Niall and Dani staring him down, and just walked back into his own.

He sat down at the desk and took a deep breath.

“Harry?”

He didn’t turn around. He knew it was Tyler who had just returned to his office.

“Harry, I’m sorry for what happened. I promise I didn’t realize-“

He stopped talking when Harry turned around in his seat and fixed him with his most menacing glare.

“Um… Harry?” Tyler stuttered.

“Let me make one thing clear,” Harry spoke lowly, “we are not friends. We are co-workers, and nothing else.”

Harry stood up and got closer to Tyler with each word he spoke. “Do not talk to me unless it’s work-related. Don’t ask me about my day or about how I’m feeling. Don’t ask me anything outside of, ‘Can you edit these pictures for me?’ because we are not friends.”

Tyler backed up as Harry got closer, finding himself standing in the doorway now, instead of inside the office.

“And if you ever touch me again,” Harry warned, “I will fucking castrate you. Don’t. Fucking. Test me!”

Tyler jumped back at the sudden increase in Harry’s volume with the final words.

Now that Tyler was far back enough, Harry slammed his office door shut before falling back into his chair.

And then he started crying, clutching at his chest as the tears he’d been holding in began to fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter two days ago, so if you find any mistakes, please let me know! I really just wanted to get this chapter up!
> 
> So, the external hard drive where I had part of the next chapter... died. I have to rewrite everything, which is why there's been a delay in the chapter. I told you I wanted to update more regularly and I really did mean that! I promise!
> 
> The next chapter will be up Sunday night!


	14. A Lot to be Thankful For

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little bit more drama before some resolution. So, yay!

Harry woke up the next morning when he heard his bedroom door open.

He lay still, facing the wall, not bothering to look over his shoulder to see who it was. He already knew it was Niall.

“Harry, you awake?” Niall whispered. “Harry?”

Harry sighed instead of saying anything, not knowing if he wanted Niall to leave, or stay and try to talk to him.

Niall made the decision for him, shutting the door and walking closer to the bed.

“Harry, I know you’re awake. You snore, and I can’t hear you breathing.”

“I don’t snore,” Harry said grumpily.

Niall sighed, but asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

“What happened last night. With Tyler. And Louis. I know Lou is upset, and I want to know how you are.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am,” Harry insisted.

Niall rolled his eyes and climbed into the bed, lying next to Harry and wrapping an arm around his waist. He hooked his head over Harry’s shoulder, resting his face on top of Harry’s.

“How are you? Really?”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said.

Niall lifted his head up and looked down at his roommate in confusion. “Why are you sorry?”

“Because you worked so hard to get Louis up here, and everything got ruined.”

“Yeah, because of Tyler. Nothing that happened yesterday was your fault. I don’t know what exactly happened in your office, but I know that whatever did wasn’t wanted. Plus, Tyler’s a huge douche; we all know that. I’m sure he did something stupid.”

Harry started shifting and turned around to face Niall. “He really is a douche, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he is. And we all know it. I’ve gotta say, though, I’m pretty proud of you. I’ve never heard you get angry like that before. It was a little scary.”

Harry smiled. “Thanks, I think. As long as he fucking leaves me alone from now on, it’ll be all right.”

“I think he will,” Niall told him. “After you slammed the door in his face, he went to his desk, sat there for five minutes and then left without a word. He didn’t say ‘good-bye’ or anything. Can’t wait to see what happens tonight.”

“Yeah, me, too… I need to talk to Louis.”

“What are you gonna say?”

“I have no idea. Obviously, I’m going to tell him that I don’t want Tyler in any way, shape or form. I only want to be with him. But, we need to figure out this long-distance thing.”

“You will,” Niall assured. “If me and Josh can do it, you can. The two of us are idiots.”

“You’re not idiots.”

“We kind of are. But listen, Louis wants this to work just as much as you do. If you guys talk, then I know everything will work out for you guys.”

“Thanks, Ni,” Harry said quietly.

“You’re welcome.”

Harry nodded, expecting his roommate to get up and leave.

And then he realized what time it was.

“You want breakfast, don’t you, Niall?”

“I mean, if you wouldn’t mind…”

“You’re the worst roommate in the world,” Harry whispered.

“I love you, too.”

Harry rolled his eyes, but still got up with Niall to make some pancakes.

He was the best roommate ever. 

\---

That night, Harry was sitting in his office, done his work for the time being. It was already after 8 o’clock and Cher had just started to send her pages to the printer.

He could hear Dani talking to Leigh-Anne about something in News, and Niall and Casey were, of course, laughing at a joke Casey had just told.

Since he had a moment, he decided to call Louis and hopefully, talk about last night.

He dialed his boyfriend’s number and sat back in his seat as it started ringing.

“Hello?”

“Hey, babe,” Harry said. He noticed the noise in the background and asked, “Are you driving?”

“Yeah. Um, I’m just parking now, though. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to talk about last night. I’m so sorry about what happened.”

“I know. So am I,” Louis said. Harry could hear him unbuckling his seat belt and turning off the car engine.

“Louis, please believe me. I didn’t do anything with Tyler. I don’t want anything to do with him. At all. I don’t want to be near him or talk to him or date him in any sense. I love _you_ , Louis, and I know it’s been rough the past couple of months and we’ve been fighting lately and we _never_ see each other, but I don’t want him. I want you, and I’m sorry.”

“Stop, Harry,” Louis pleaded. “Stop. You don’t have anything to be sorry for. I trust you. I know you didn’t do anything with Tyler and that you didn’t want him to do anything. I believe you. And yeah, we _have_ been fighting lately, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still love you, and it doesn’t mean I still don’t want this to work. We’ve just both been stressed, and, well… we’ve both been kinda terrible at the whole communication thing.”

Harry snorted. “Yeah, I guess we have, huh?”

“Plus, everything was just such bad timing, and I got pissed-”

“And you have every right to be pissed. I understand why you were so mad. And I’ve been terrible with asking you about _you,_ so, tell me what’s going on. I’m all ears.”

“Um, can I actually call you later? I have to take care of something first.”

“Oh, OK. Yeah, um-”

“Hey, Harry?”

Harry turned around and saw Tyler standing awkwardly in the doorway, holding a piece of paper in his hand.

“Can you edit these pictures for me?”

“Is that Tyler?” Louis snarled over the phone.

“Yeah, it is. He does still work here, remember?”

Tyler shifted his weight from one foot to the other, waiting for Harry to take the paper from him.

“Yeah, I remember. I have to go. I’ll call you.”

“OK. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Harry hung up and sighed, still not feeling at ease. He turned and snatched the paper out of Tyler’s hands.

He didn’t say anything, and just glared at Tyler for a moment.

Tyler took a step back, and Harry glanced down at the pictures Tyler had written.

“Hey, Harry,” Tyler started saying.

Harry returned his glaring look, and still stayed silent.

“Look, Harry, I never-”

“Harry!” Niall burst into the office and quickly looked between Harry and Tyler. He started chuckling and said, “You can leave now, Tyler.”

Pouting, Tyler returned to his desk.

“Get outside,” Niall ordered. “Now.”

“Why?”

“Because I just looked out my window and saw Louis holding a carton of eggs and walking toward a car. Three guesses whose car he’s throwing them at.”

“No. Oh, shit!”

Harry stood up and quickly walked out of the main office. As soon as he was in the hallway, he started running.

He shoved the door open and rushed up the ramp to the sidewalk. He turned toward the parking lot and hurried to the end, where Louis was hurling an egg at a black car with all of his strength.

Harry watched in disbelief as Louis picked up another egg and launched it at the same car with a grunt.

“Louis, stop!”

Harry ran over to him and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Louis, what are you doing here?”

“What does it look like?”

“You can’t egg Tyler’s car!” Harry yelled.

“Why not?”

“Because you can’t!”

“He had his arm around you, a hand on your thigh and was leaning in, about to go for the kiss. I had to walk in on that, Harry; of course I can egg his car!”

Louis bent down and picked up another egg.

“No!” Harry reached over and knocked it out of his hand. "Louis, this isn't you! Why are you doing this?"

"Yeah, well, maybe it should be me. Maybe if this was the kind of guy I am, I wouldn't have scumbags like Tyler trying to fuck up my relationship."

Harry kicked the carton out of the way as Louis tried to grab at it again. "You can't have any more eggs!"

"Why are you defending him?" Louis asked. "Why? He hit on you, Harry, knowing you're still with me. Didn't that make you mad? Didn't that make you uncomfortable?"

"Of course it did. I didn't want that."

"So let me finish throwing the eggs."

Harry shook his head. "No."

"Why not?"

“Because Tyler’s not the one you’re mad at, and you know it!”

“Of course I’m mad at Tyler. I hate that guy!”

“You’re mad at me, Louis; just admit it.”

“I’m not mad at _you_ , Harry,” Louis insisted. “I love you.”

“You can still love me and be mad at me, Louis.”

“Why would I be mad at you? I even said it wasn’t your fault for anything.”

“Because you think I’m not working as hard in this relationship as you are!”

“I- What?” Louis exclaimed. “Why would you think that?”

“Because it’s true; that’s why. I don’t ask you what’s going on in your life, I don’t make time for you, I’m always studying and I got caught with Tyler’s arm around me. Meanwhile, you’ve done nothing wrong. You’re always the one trying to call me and see me. You still ask about school even though you know I’ll probably get mad and you’ve never blown me off. You’re the good guy in this relationship, and I’m not.”

“Harry, stop saying you’re the bad guy! Or that you’re a shit boyfriend or anything else!”

“I will when you admit that you think I’m not putting in as much effort as you are!”

“No!”

“Say it, Louis!”

“No!”

“Louis!”

“Fine! I do think that! Happy?” Louis shouted. “You don’t have as much time for me as I do for you, and it’s because of those six fucking classes you’re taking. And you’re gonna take six more next semester, and you actually think we’re gonna be OK after that? Look at us now! I’m egging Tyler’s car and you’re yelling at me and we’re _always_ angry at each other because there’s no time for _us._ How’s that? Do you feel better now?”

“No,” Harry answered tearily. “No, I don’t feel better. You think I’m not giving all that I have left in me to this relationship? You really think you’re not the most important thing in the world to me?”

“Yes, I do think that. Harry, you have your priorities, and I’m not your first one anymore. Maybe I’m just having trouble accepting that it’s not like it was when we were in college.”

“Because we’re growing up, Louis. Things change when you grow up, but you have to grow with it; you have to keep fighting for it. When I take six classes next semester, does that mean you’re not gonna fight?”

“I’ve _been_ fighting,” Louis replied angrily. “ _We_ have been fighting, and not in the good way, because every time we fight, I feel more and more distance being put between us.”

“So, what? What does this mean? You want to break up or something?”

Louis blinked once and examined Harry’s face more closely.

“This is the part where you’re supposed to say no!”

“No! Of course, I don’t want to break up. But things need to change, and right now, nothing is going to change.”

“I’ve done all that I can to avoid overloading,” Harry cried. “I swear; I have. But none of my classes are being offered over winter break, and it’s too much of a risk to wait until next semester to hope that any of them are being offered over the summer. Louis, I…”

Harry stopped talking and wiped his eyes. He didn’t know when he had started tearing up, but now, it was all he could focus on.

“Harry,” Louis said quietly.

“I love you,” Harry told him, still sniffling.

Louis walked over to him and pulled his boyfriend into a hug. Harry wrapped his arms around Louis just as tightly. “I love you so much,” Louis whispered.

Harry nodded and tucked his face into the crook of Louis’ neck.

The two of them stood there, clutching onto each other.

“Come into the office,” Harry requested as they broke apart. “Please?”

“I don’t know, Haz…”

“Please? We don’t even have to talk about anything; we can just sit there. I just want to spend time with you.”

“OK. Just, hang on a second?”

Harry agreed and took a step back.

Louis picked up the remaining eggs in the carton and threw them at the un-egged parts of Tyler’s car.

Harry rolled his eyes, but waited for Louis to get out any more aggression he had.

“You want to do the last one?” Louis held out his hand, holding one last egg.

Harry sighed. “Yeah, kind of.”

He took the egg from Louis and chucked it at the driver’s side door as hard as he could.

“Did that feel good?” Louis asked.

“A little,” Harry reluctantly admitted. “You have any egg on your hands?”

Louis shook his head after inspecting them. “No, I’m good.”

“OK. Let’s go?”

Louis nodded and Harry held out his hand.

Louis took it and wove their fingers together.

They walked into the building, and once they got into the office, silence fell over everybody.

Harry wordlessly pulled Louis inside. They got to Harry’s office, only to face Tyler. He had been placing another piece of paper on Harry’s desk.

Harry and Louis glared at Tyler, who looked about ready to pass out.

“Um, I- I just, um, had to fix the size of the picture I needed,” Tyler stuttered out.

Harry could hear a low growl building in the back of Louis’ throat. He nudged his boyfriend on the arm, ending the noise.

“Um, I’m just- I- I gotta go,” Tyler said.

“Yeah, why don’t you do that?” Louis sneered.

Tyler walked past them and went to sit at his desk, keeping his head down the whole time.

“Louis…” Harry started.

“Whatever.”

Louis sat down in the chair next to Harry’s desk, crossing his legs at the ankle.

Harry sighed and sat down in his own seat. He looked at the new piece of paper from Tyler and started editing the photo.

They sat in silence as Harry worked.

He’d never been so uncomfortable sitting in the same room as his boyfriend until that very moment.

\---

Louis and his sisters groaned from their seats around the dining room table on Thanksgiving night.

“What?” Jay asked. “Seriously, is it so bad to ask what you kids are thankful for?”

“Yes!” all five of them answered in unison.

“Come on, kids; this will be fun. I’ll start. I’m thankful for all of you _lovely, adorable_ children, who I love very much.” Under her breath, she added, “right now, I can’t remember why.”

“Heard that,” Phoebe said.

“Real nice, mom,” Fizzy added.

“Yeah, whatever.” Jay rolled her eyes. “And, I’m thankful for Dan, who will be an amazing father to the new baby.”

“And we find out what it is in a few weeks!” Lottie squealed.

“It’s a girl,” Louis interjected.

“Louis, it’s a 50/50 chance,” Dan told him.

“Yeah, sure.”

“And I’m thankful for the chance to spend this holiday with my entire family,” Jay concluded. “OK. Who’s next?”

“I’ll go,” Lottie volunteered. “I’m thankful for all of you guys, of course. But I’m also thankful that I’m a senior, and going to graduate near the top of my class.”

“You’ve worked very hard this year, sweetie,” Jay complimented.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“My turn!” Daisy said. “I’m thankful for Rowan, even though I can’t go out riding with her as much as I want. And I’m thankful for you guys.”

“I’m thankful for…” Fizzy thought out loud, “my friends, and just for the chance to be with you guys for the holidays.”

“I think I’m just thankful for the chance to call you all my family,” Dan said sincerely. “It’s an honor to be with you this holiday season.”

“Aww,” they all said, appreciating Dan’s honesty.

“That was cute, babe,” Jay told him.

“Thank you.”

It was Phoebe’s turn next. “I’m thankful for the new baby, because that means I’m not the youngest anymore!”

Louis and his sisters started laughing at their younger sibling, who was only younger than Daisy by a few minutes.

“Those minutes really count, don’t they?” Fizzy wondered.

“Yup,” Daisy answered. “They really do!”

“Oh, jeez,” Jay sighed. “And I’m adding another one to this bunch.”

“You love it,” Lottie told her.

“Yeah, I kinda do.”

Finally, it was down to Louis. “I’m thankful for all of you guys, because you’re the best family I could have ever asked for. And, I’m thankful that I’m a college graduate with a job that I love.” As he spoke, his voice got quieter. “I’m thankful for my friends, and… I’m thankful for Harry, who I love very much.”

The last thought was spoken in a near whisper, but he was sure everyone around the table heard it.

Louis cleared his throat before saying, “OK. Let’s eat.”

“Let’s eat,” they agreed.

As Louis prepared a plate for himself, he could feel his mom’s eyes focused on him.

He didn’t look up to meet them.

\---

On Friday night, Louis walked out of his room and downstairs to the kitchen.

The house was silent. Louis was the only one still awake, and needed a drink of water.

He pulled a cup from the cabinet and placed it under the filter in the fridge, filling the glass up halfway.

As he sat down at the table to take a sip, he saw a flash of headlights outside his house.

He didn’t think anything of it until he noticed the sound of a car still idling outside.

He went to the bay window in the living room, and, after pushing open the blinds, saw a red car parked next to the sidewalk.

Immediately, he realized it was Harry’s car.

“What?” Louis whispered.

He stood there, and watched as Harry stepped out of the car. He went to the backseat, pulled out an overnight bag and shut the door behind him.

Harry walked up to the house, locking the car as he went.

He was just getting to the steps when Louis opened the door with a big smile on his face.

“Hi,” Louis said quietly.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here? It’s almost midnight.”

“I had to see you,” Harry replied. “Well, I had to talk to you, I guess is more like it. I have news.”

Louis nodded and took a step back, signaling for Harry to come inside.

Harry did, and dropped his bag on the chair in front of the window. He took his coat off and hung it in the hall closet; he knew Jay hated when coats were left sitting around the house.

As he turned around, Louis rushed at him, wrapping his arms around him.

Harry returned the embrace, holding Louis close to him.

Harry thought Louis was going to say something, but he stayed silent.

When they pulled back, Louis and Harry watched each other carefully.

“Come on.” Louis tilted his head to the side and took his hand, leading him into the kitchen.

They sat down at the table, and for a moment, neither of them said anything.

“So…” Louis started. “You said you have news?”

“Yeah. Um, so, like, three hours ago, I checked my email, and I found one from school.”

“OK?”

“Well, it was a list of updated courses for the J-Term. Apparently, there was such an increase in students interested in taking classes over winter break that they added a few courses, and one of them was Photography.”

“OK.”

“Well, I was planning on taking Photography fall semester next year, but instead, I’m going to take it over winter break, which means I’ll only have four classes that semester.”

“Right.”

“So, I’m going to drop Advanced Speech for next semester and take it senior year instead.”

Louis fully understood what Harry was telling him, but wanted to hear it loud and clear.

“Harry,” Louis started, “what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I can rearrange my schedule, take a class over winter break, five classes next semester and five classes in the fall.”

Louis stared at Harry, wanting him to say the exact words.

“Louis, I don’t have to overload next semester.”

“Oh, my God,” Louis gasped. He got up from his chair and climbed into Harry’s lap.

Louis peppered kisses all over Harry’s face. “I’m so fucking relieved,” Louis said before kissing Harry once more on the lips.

Harry pressed his lips firmly against Louis’, and wrapped his arms around Louis, pulling him as close as he could.

“I love you,” Harry said when they separated.

“I love you, too.” Louis pecked Harry once more before sitting back a little. “God, things will be so much better for us now.”

“They really will,” Harry said. He slipped his hands under the hem of Louis’ sweater and ran his fingertips up and down his back. “I promise.”

Louis smiled. “OK.”

“We need to talk about you now.”

“Hmm,” Louis nodded. “Yeah, we do. Tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?”

“Because right now, I really want you to come upstairs with me and fuck me.”

Harry raised his eyebrows at Louis’ blunt tone. “You know we’re in a house with all of your family, right?”

“So?”

“So, I don’t really want your mom and your future stepdad and your four sisters to hear us having sex.”

Louis shrugged. “I’ll be quiet.”

Harry chuckled. “Do you remember last year, when we had that snow day? And you swore that you would be totally quiet?”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure you challenged me to be quiet.”

“Anyway… we had sex in your room, Zayn got mad at us for it because you guys shared a wall and he heard everything. Remember that?”

“Maybe.”

“Yeah. You can’t be quiet, babe. We’ve tried, and that hasn’t worked.”

“Well, let’s try again,” Louis whined. “Please?”

Louis rolled his hips down, and put a pout on his face. “Pretty please?”

“Louis. We’re not having sex under your mom’s roof when she and everybody else are home.”

Louis leaned in and trailed his lips up Harry’s neck before placing soft kisses under Harry’s jawline. He put his hands on Harry’s chest and ran his hands over his nipples through his shirt.

Harry’s breath hitched, and his hands tightened around Louis’ waist.

Louis moved to the other side of Harry’s neck and started sucking a mark there.

“Lou,” Harry groaned lowly.

“Hmm?”

Louis started unbuttoning Harry’s shirt, and as he did, left kisses down Harry’s chest.

He rolled his hips down again, getting another gasp from Harry.

“Get up,” Harry said.

“Why?” Louis asked innocently, sitting back a little bit.

“You know why. Get upstairs.”

Louis squealed and hopped up. He took Harry’s hand and the two of them hurried upstairs as quietly as they could.

They went into Louis’ room and shut the door behind them.

Louis sat on his bed, and Harry straddled him immediately. He reattached their lips and pushed Louis back until they were both horizontal.

Louis finished unbuttoning Harry’s shirt and pulled it off him.

Harry slipped his hands under Louis’ sweater and started pushing it up.

Louis sat up long enough to get it off before letting himself get shoved back down.

Harry and Louis grabbed at each other’s jeans and started unzipping them.

“God,” Louis whispered.

Harry stood up, kicked off his boots and pulled his jeans and briefs off.

After dropping them to the floor, he got Louis’ lube and a condom from Louis’ bedside table.

Then he returned to the bed to finish undressing Louis. The second they were both naked, Harry was on top of him, lying between his spread legs and pressing their lips together.

Louis wove his fingers into Harry’s hair and held on while Harry reached down and wrapped a hand around both of their cocks. He gently stroked up and down, tugging them both to full hardness.

“God, get in me already,” Louis whined, letting go of Harry’s hair.

“Jesus. Give me a second.”

Harry moved his hand and sat back. He grabbed the lube and coated three of his fingers.

He rubbed around Louis’ hole with one finger and massaged at it until he was able to push in.

Louis bit his lower lip as Harry moved in and out of him.

Harry ducked his head down to Louis’ chest and started kissing down it.

“Fuck,” Louis muttered. He placed a hand on the back of Harry’s head and rested it there as Harry moved down toward his groin.

Harry nibbled at the skin on Louis’ lower abs before taking hold of Louis’ cock.

He kissed the tip and flicked his tongue over it.

Louis wriggled on the bed, sending Harry’s finger even deeper into him.

Harry sucked Louis’ dick into his mouth and wrapped his tongue around it. He bobbed his head slowly down, letting his tongue drag across Louis’ length.

Louis took a deep breath and let himself relax more, and Harry soon slipped in a second finger.

Harry hollowed his cheeks and moved a bit quicker, hearing Louis’ breath become uneven.

With his free hand, Louis gripped onto the sheets. With the other, he took a hold on Harry’s hair, tighter than it had been before.

Louis rolled his hips as Harry curled his fingers; he could feel himself being stretched out more.

Harry kept moving his fingers as he continued blowing Louis.

Louis moaned, and Harry pinched him on the hip.

“Ow!” he hissed. Harry looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Oh, right,” Louis realized. “Sorry.”

Harry winked and slid in a third finger.

Louis shifted his hips some more, and, eager to get Harry inside of him, stopped his boyfriend another minute later.

“I’m ready,” Louis insisted. “Come on.”

Harry slipped his fingers out of Louis and wiped them off on his own thigh. He unwrapped the condom and slid it down his cock.

He hovered over Louis, ready to slide in, but then… Harry shook his head. “This is never gonna work. Do you hear this?”

He bounced up and down on the squeaky mattress a few times before saying, “We’re gonna make too much noise if we fuck on the bed.”

“It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? You were just three fingers deep in my ass and you’ve already got the condom on.”

“Well, we can’t do it on the bed. You have to get off.”

“And go where?”

“I don’t know,” Harry shrugged. “Get on the floor.”

“I’m not getting on the floor!” Louis hissed. “I’ll get rug burn on my knees.”

“OK, so… The wall. Get against the wall.”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “We’ve never done it against a wall before.”

“So let’s do it now.”

Louis grinned and jumped off the bed.

He put his hands against the wall next to the closet. He leaned forward and pushed his ass back.

If he gave it a few shakes, nobody had to know.

Harry stood behind Louis, putting one hand on Louis’ hip and the other on his own cock. He gave it a few strokes before lining up with Louis’ hole.

“You ready?” Harry whispered.

Louis nodded and planted his feet, ready for Harry to just get inside him already.

Seconds later, Louis felt his mouth drop open as Harry slid in. It had been less than a month since Harry had fucked him, but it felt like so much longer now that it was actually happening.

Harry leaned forward and kissed at the back of Louis’ neck.

Louis sighed as he pushed his ass backward just a little more.

“God, I missed you,” Harry whispered in his ear. “You take my cock so well.”

Harry moved in slowly, inch by inch. He soon bottomed out, and stayed still to let Louis adjust.

While he waited, he moved his face to nibble at Louis’ ear.

Louis bit his lower lip as Harry did so, and felt his fingers pressing more against the wall than they had before.

“Fuck,” Louis whispered.

“I can do that.”

Louis was about to make a sarcastic remark, but instead, his eyes rolled into the back of his head when Harry pulled out and slammed back in.

“Oh,” Louis cried out.

“Shhh,” Harry reminded him. “We have to be quiet, remember?”

He pulled back and pushed back in, slower this time.

“Whose stupid idea was that?” Louis asked.

“I believe it was yours.”

Harry rocked in and out of Louis at a moderate pace, gradually starting to move faster.

He shifted his aim, and hit Louis’ prostate.

Louis moaned – loudly – and Harry had to shush him again.

“This isn’t gonna work,” Louis said breathlessly. He started to push back against Harry’s cock, meeting him in the middle, thrust for thrust.

“Louis!” Harry hissed.

“What?” Louis whined. “Come on, Harry, just fuck me. I’ll be quiet, I promise.”

“Yeah, right.” Harry didn’t slow his thrusts, but instead, just avoided Louis’ prostate for the time being.

Louis started letting out small whimpers each time Harry fucked into him. He dropped his head between his arms, feeling his orgasm building.

“Louis, be quiet! We’re gonna get caught.”

Louis’ response was to moan again. This one was louder than the first.

“Lou!”

“I’m sorry; I can’t help it,” Louis groaned. “You fuck me so good.”

“Thanks. But you still need to be quiet, so…”

Harry clapped a hand over Louis’ mouth, hoping it would help stifle Louis’ noise.

Louis cried out and placed a hand over Harry’s, holding on tightly.

Harry started thrusting into Louis quickly, still avoiding his spot. He could feel Louis’ lips part behind his hand, letting the hot air from his mouth hit Harry’s palm.

Harry knew Louis’ orgasm was building, since Louis was clenching down on his cock. And now Harry’s own orgasm was growing.

His hips were getting erratic with his motions, so Harry decided to try to aim for Louis’ prostate again.

He shifted just a little, and hit his target dead-on.

Louis tightened his grip on Harry’s hand, but managed to keep his moans quiet.

“Good boy,” Harry praised quietly.

Louis let out a whimper at Harry’s words. Harry responded with a few quick thrusts. He pounded away at Louis’ ass, and could sense Louis holding himself back because he wanted to be quiet. He wanted to be good.

The hand that Louis had still holding him up against the wall clenched up into a fist, while the one on top of Harry’s hand pressed it even more against his mouth.

“You gonna come?” Harry asked, his dick still moving quickly in and out of Louis.

Louis just nodded, not trusting his voice to be anything below manic and loud.

Harry took his hand off Louis’ hip and wrapped it around Louis’ cock, making a tight circle with his thumb and forefinger.

Harry moved just a little harder, sending Louis forward more so that his dick would move forward through Harry’s fist and his ass would push back onto Harry’s cock.

The stimulation was intense, as Harry knew it would be, and he watched all of the muscles in Louis’ body tighten.

“Come, baby,” Harry whispered in Louis’ ear. “Come for me.”

Louis nodded again. A few seconds later, he shot out white, hot spurts, and the fist he had clenched pounded against the wall in front of his face. He sighed in relief, and Harry moved his hands when Louis had every drop squeezed out of him.

He took hold of Louis’ hips and fucked into his boyfriend a few more times before he came, too, filling up the condom.

Harry rocked his hips as he worked his way through his orgasm. He tucked his face into the crook of Louis’ neck, hearing their breathing sync up.

Louis rested his forearms against the wall and leaned his sweaty forehead against it.

Harry ran his hands up and down Louis’ sides and kissed at Louis’ warm skin. He held onto Louis’ waist and slowly pulled out.

He pulled the condom off and tied up before throwing it in Louis’ trashcan.

“Babe? You all right?”

Louis nodded. “I’m exhausted.”

Harry smirked and took hold of Louis’ waist.

He led him over to the bed and the two of them crawled under the blanket.

Harry reached over and turned off the lamp next to the bed and snuggled close to his boy.

He heard Louis’ breathing even out moments later, and Harry knew he wasn’t far behind.

\---

Louis woke up with a mouth full of curls. He slowly blinked a few times, and the memories of last night came rushing back.

He pulled his head back with a smile on his face, but tightened his hold around Harry’s waist.

He lay there for a few minutes in silence, listening to the slow inhale and deep exhale of Harry’s breathing.

Waking up this way brought back a lot of memories from college: wrapped around Harry and squeezed into a tiny, single bed. Harry felt warm against his front, and Louis knew that if they were up at school, there might be the chance to stay there all day.

But as it stood, he could already hear someone moving around downstairs, probably his mom getting ready for breakfast.

He let out a deep breath, the noise of which made Harry stir.

“Haz,” Louis whispered.

Harry grunted and snuggled further under the covers.

Louis kissed the back of Harry’s neck and whispered his name again.

“Hmm?”

“Haz, wake up.”

Harry shifted a little more before slowly turning around.

“Hi,” Harry spoke softly.

“Hey.”

Louis moved over and pecked Harry on the lips. “How do you feel?”

“Better, now that we talked.”

Louis smiled at him.

“I didn’t forget that we needed to talk about what’s going on with you, though.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Yeah. You can start with the good stuff first, though.”

Louis sighed before beginning with, “My mom's engagement ring is coming in on Tuesday, and Dan wants to propose next weekend.”

Harry gasped. “Are you serious? How’s he gonna do it?”

“Well, since Mom asked him to move in with all of us there, he wants to propose the same way. He’s thinking of taking her out on a date, and then coming back here where we’ll be waiting. Then, we’re all going to be chilling here and he’s going to make a little speech and he’s going to ask her.”

“Sounds just right for them. And for you guys.”

“Agreed.”

“You have to call me when she says ‘yes,’ OK?”

“Of course,” Louis replied. “I hope I don’t start crying or something.”

“If you cry at anything, it’ll be when you find out what your mom’s having.”

“I know! It’s the same week that you have finals, so I’ll text you when I find out.”

“You know, if you let me know what night it is, maybe I can be here for it.”

“You’re gonna have to study,” Louis said.

“Yeah, but this is huge for you, and I want to be there.”

“You’re not going to get mad at me, are you? For not letting you study all day?”

“Is that sarcasm?”

“Only a little bit.”

“I’m gonna be here,” Harry promised. “I want to be. I do need to study, but I’ve already missed so much with you, and I don’t want to do that if I can help it.”

“OK.”

“OK.”

Louis smiled widely at Harry, who then said, “We still need to talk about that work thing.”

“Yeah,” Louis sighed. “Um… Well, remember that night I was supposed to come up to see you? Right after we surprised Zayn at the art studio?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, that week, there was a big scandal around here,” Louis explained. “One of the men on the town council was accused of embezzling money. So, the night before I was coming up, we were waiting for the councilman to call us back. When he did, I answered the phone, and thought I put him on hold, but I actually hung up on him.”

Harry gasped. “Oh, no.”

“Yeah. So, I went to the reporter who was assigned to the story, and then we realized what I did. Then Nick overheard and made Luke – that was the writer – call the councilman back. Thankfully, he answered and Luke was able to get the quotes he needed. Unfortunately, Nick pulled me into his office and tore me apart. He said that I would’ve been fired if the councilman didn’t answer, and he said that I could be replaced if I didn’t get my shit together. Then he told me to go home.”

“Baby, I’m so sorry. And then I yelled at you the next night and made you feel like crap. God, I was so mean to you…”

“I didn’t help any, though. We were both wrong-“

“Yeah, we really were,” Harry agreed. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too.”

Harry kissed Louis again, a little longer this time.

They pulled back when they heard Louis’ mom calling his name.

“We should get downstairs,” Louis said with a pout.

“Probably.”

He kissed Louis one more time before the two of them crawled out of the bed.

Louis pulled on a pair of boxers, sweatpants and a T-shirt, and Harry realized his bag was still downstairs.

“Borrow my stuff, babe,” Louis told him.

“Thanks.”

Harry went through Louis’ dresser and pulled out some clothes that were too big for Louis.

He quickly got dressed, and the two of them went down to the kitchen.

“Hey, Harry,” Dan greeted from the table. “Glad to see you two made up.”

“Thanks, Dan,” Harry said with a smile.

“Yeah, I heard you two making up last night,” Jay chimed in nonchalantly. “Louis, next time you have sex in the house, don’t punch the wall when you finish.”

Harry cleared his throat awkwardly as the heat rushed to Louis’ cheeks.

“You want pancakes?” Jay asked.

“Yes, please,” Louis and Harry answered in unison.

Dan smirked at them, then looked back down at the newspaper he was reading.

Louis looked over at Harry, who was shaking his head.

“What?” he asked.

Harry just looked at him and said, “I knew you couldn’t be quiet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up Tuesday night!


	15. Accident-Prone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so this chapter has a character cutting her thumb with a knife. It's super brief, but I marked it between double lines for anyone who gets squeamish at the mention of blood. Just read up to the lines and start reading after the next set.

Louis had just gotten comfortable on his bed Monday night when he heard a knock at his bedroom door.

“Come in,” he grumbled.

Dan walked in and asked, “Can we talk? It’s about the apartment.”

That woke Louis up. He’d been tired from his long day at work, but not anymore.

“Sure. What’s going on?”

“OK, so,” Dan started as he sat on Louis’ bed. “Talked to the manager. He’s not willing to let me break the lease right now. He said he didn’t want to take the chance of throwing you in right away and maybe trying to skip out on your first payment.”

“We wouldn’t do that,” Louis said, trying to defend him and Liam.

“I know you wouldn’t. But it’s his prerogative; it’s fine. Besides, my lease is up at the end of January anyway. So, here’s what’s going to happen: you and Liam can go down there and talk to him about what’s going on, because he’s willing to let you two take over the apartment when the lease is up, as long as everything with you checks out. You have to go there with your last two pay stubs, and he’s going to run a credit check. Pretty standard stuff, really. Anyway, if everything checks out, and he likes you, then you and Liam will officially have the apartment on February 1.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Dan nodded. “That’s it. It shouldn’t be a problem. He’s a nice guy; he’s just concerned with getting his money like everybody else, I suppose.”

“I guess. But OK, cool. Can we go over whenever?”

“Yup. He said, ‘at your earliest convenience.’ But he’s usually around later on Wednesday nights, if that helps.”

“I’ll talk to Liam. We can probably go then and get everything sorted out.”

“Good idea,” Dan praised. “You’ll be fine. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

“Awesome. Thanks, Dan. We really appreciate it.”

“Absolutely. It’s part of growing up, isn’t it? Getting your own place.”

“And with Liam, who I’ve lived with the last three years. At least we’re already familiar with each other.”

“Yeah, that’s good. You know what annoys you about him, and vice versa.”

“Exactly; so he better not have picked up a stupid habit in the last few months that we haven’t been roommates.”

Dan laughed. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he hasn’t.”

“I hope so… Hey, speaking of going out on a limb-“

“Don’t phrase it like that, Louis.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say!”

“Some smartass remark about proposing to your mom. Am I right?”

Louis swore under his breath.

Dan chuckled. “I know you kids. More than you think. But, we’re going out on Sunday night, to that French place over in Turnersville.”

“Fancy, but not too flashy. Nice choice.”

“Thank you. When we’re done, we’ll come back here. Actually, could you do me a favor? Could you pick up an ice cream cake and we can eat it when we get home?”

Louis nodded. “Mom loves her ice cream cake.”

“I know; and like you said, nothing flashy: just a calm evening at home. So, we’ll all eat, and then we’ll watch a movie, and when the time is right, I’ll ask her.”

“Do you know what you’re gonna say yet?”

“Not a clue. So, I have to figure that out this week.”

“It might help,” Louis agreed.

“Maybe. Honestly, I might just wing it. Just speak from the heart and all that.”

“That’ll probably work. Let’s be honest, Mom can get super emotional. She might start crying when you get down on one knee and not even hear what you say anyway.”

Dan paused. “Was that supposed to make me feel better?”

“That depends. Did it?”

Dan tilted his head from side to side, considering it. “Sort of?”

“Then yes. Yes, it was.”

\---

Zayn knocked on Perrie’s front door on Thursday.

The two of them were going out to lunch. It should’ve been a normal day, only Perrie had texted him about an hour ago saying that she needed to talk to him about something.

Needless to say, it had Zayn slightly on edge.

She opened the door and let him in.

“How are you?” she asked, pecking him on the lips.

“Good. What’s the matter?”

She lightly chuckled. “Nothing’s the matter. Sorry; I know my text was a little ominous. Here, let’s sit down.”

She led him into the living room and they sat on the couch.

“What’s wrong?” Zayn asked immediately.

“Nothing! It’s about grad school.”

“Oh. OK, that’s good news. Not like the apocalyptic scenarios I had built up in my head.”

“What did you think I was going to talk to you about?”

Zayn shrugged. “I don’t know. Squirrel plague in your backyard; stores stopped selling hair dye; nuclear missile headed straight for the house.”

“So, normal stuff?”

“Yeah.”

“You never once thought that I might be breaking up with you?”

“That’s not funny.”

“I know, and it’s not going to happen.”

She leaned over and kissed him again before sitting back in her seat.

“OK, so let’s just get on with it: I’m applying to four grad programs,” Perrie said carefully.

“That’s awesome. I know NYU is one of them, right?”

“Yup. That might be my first pick, honestly, but just in case I don’t get accepted there, I need some back-ups, you know?”

“Definitely. What are the other ones?” Zayn asked.

“Uh, Syracuse University. Also in New York, just farther north.”

Zayn nodded. “OK.”

“Um…” Perrie cleared her throat. “Northwestern.”

“Isn’t that in-?”

“Chicago, yeah,” Perrie rushed. “And U.C. Berkeley. OK, let’s go eat!”

She jumped up and tried to leave the room.

“Wait, what?” Zayn stood up and watched his girlfriend, who turned slowly back around to look at him. “Did you say Berkeley?”

“Yeah.”

“Is there a Berkeley in the tri-state area that I don’t know about?”

“No.”

“So, it’s the one in California? You’re going all the way to California?”

“Maybe! Only if NYU doesn’t work out.”

“Holy shit.”

“Zayn,” Perrie started saying as she walked back over to him, “I know this is going to suck, but we can do it. So we’ll be long-distance for a while. We’ll get through it.”

“Yeah, but we’ll be on opposite coasts, Pez. It’s like, three thousand miles.”

“You’re being really negative here. Besides, I might not get into Berkeley, either. I could go to NYU and only be an hour away.”

“Or, you might _not_ get into NYU, and get into Berkeley and go there.”

“Then I’ll go there! But these are all ‘What If’s,’ though, Zayn!” Perrie cried. “I haven’t even applied anywhere yet.”

“But you will, and chances are, you’ll get accepted into at least one of them, and things are going to change.”

“Well, of course, things will change. But we can handle that. You said so yourself!”

“When?” Zayn asked.

“Like, two months ago, when I first told you I wanted to apply to schools. You said, and I quote, ‘We can handle anything that comes our way.’ Do you remember that?”

“… Yeah,” Zayn slowly answered. He did recall half-heartedly saying those words when the two of them were out lounging by his uncle’s pool.

“Well did you believe them?”

“Yes!”

_No._

“So, what’s the problem?” Perrie wondered. “We’ll figure it out when the time comes, but right now, there’s no need to freak out, Zayn. I haven’t gotten accepted to any of the schools yet. For all we know, I could get rejected by all four, and not go anywhere at all.”

“Don’t say that. You’ll get in somewhere.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He sighed and added, “I’m sorry for my less-than-stellar reaction. You know I’m proud of you, right?”

“Yeah, I do, just… Jeez, it’s not all about you, you know. I’m freaking out, too. I don’t want to leave you.”

“I don’t want you to leave, either. But, I did mean what I said before. We can handle it, the distance thing. We will.”

Perrie smiled and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug.

Zayn held her closely, encouraging himself to actually believe those words this time.

\---

“Liam, we’re not getting a leather couch,” Louis spoke into the phone on Saturday afternoon. He opened the fridge and looked through it, hoping to find something to snack on until dinner.

“Why not?”

“I hate leather couches. The backs of your legs stick to them during the summer and it feels all uncomfortable. Just, no. Besides, we might not need a couch. Dan and my mom haven’t decided if they want to keep his stuff or let us have it.”

“You shoot down everything I say,” Liam whined.

“One! One other thing I said ‘no’ to, and that was your waterbed idea. Do you know what year it is, Liam? It’s 2014. No one has waterbeds anymore.”

“Whatever. It’s my apartment, too, Louis.”

“Not yet. The landlord has to run our credit scores and all that other financial shit.”

“We’ll be fine. Unless you have debts that I don’t know about.”

“If you don’t know about them, then I sure as hell don’t,” Louis replied. He shut the refrigerator door, not finding anything he wanted.

“We’ll get approved for it," Liam said. "Dan said he was a good guy, right?”

“Yeah, he did.”

“Then we got nothing to worry about, and need to start shopping around for stuff.”

“It’s not like we need _that much,_ ” Louis said. “Dan’s letting us keep his TV in the living room, since there’s no room for it here. We just – maybe – need living room furniture and definitely have to get new bed frames and mattresses and toiletries and stuff to go in the bathrooms and food for the kitchen.”

“We also need sheets for those new mattresses and I want to get something to put my TV on in my room. Oh, and we can’t forget about a dining table and chairs; at least a small set. Plus, we need to pack. God, that’s gonna take forever.”

“It won’t be that bad.”

“Says you,” Liam sighed. “You have an army of sisters you can bribe to help you pack. My sisters are older than me. I’m pretty sure they’ll punch me if I so much as hint at them helping me.”

“Ask your parents to help you.”

“Yeah, right. My mom will get all nostalgic and start crying about how her baby is leaving the nest, and my dad will just want to leave to go watch football.”

“What about Dani?”

“Yeah, I can ask her. She’ll probably hate it, though. And she’ll make fun of my Batman action figures like she always does.”

“Look, if you really need help, I can come help you pack.”

“No,” Liam said immediately.

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll look for embarrassing things to hold over my head.”

Louis gasped. “I will not!”

“You will, too. Do you remember the first time you ever came over to my house? You found my high school yearbook and made fun of my curly hair until Christmas.”

Louis laughed to himself. “Oh, yeah. That’s right. I wish I knew you back then.”

“Why? So you could make fun of me to my face?”

“Yeah, kind of.”

“OK. I’m hanging up now.”

\---

Sunday was quite possibly the worst day of Dan Deakin’s life.

It was supposed to be the day that he proposed to Jay, but of course, nothing was going right.

First, Dan’s car had gotten a flat tire on the way to the ritzy restaurant where Dan had made reservations. By the time Triple A came to help them, their table had been given away.

So, in an attempt to still eat, they went to the Applebee’s a few miles away. If Dan hadn’t been so annoyed, he would’ve laughed at the hostess’ reaction when the two of them walked in, as Dan was wearing a nice suit, and Jay was wearing a sparkly blue dress.

Clearly, they were overdressed.

After they were seated, they ordered their food, which came out nearly an hour later, due to the massive crowd in the restaurant. Apparently, the high school’s basketball team had won a very important game earlier that day, and the entire town felt the need to come celebrate.

The food was lukewarm, but both Jay and Dan were so hungry that they devoured it anyway.

Now, having just felt the effects of eating his food so quickly, Dan was in the bathroom. He had just washed his hands and was going over what he wanted to say to Jay when they got home.

“I love your five children like my own, and…” he rehearsed, “this new baby will be loved more than it will ever know.”

Seconds later, he whispered to himself, “No, that’s dumb.”

He thought about a different way to say that as he took the ring out of his pocket.

He popped open the box and stared down at the glittering diamond ring. The jewelers had done an excellent job shining it up.

He took a deep breath and put the box back in his pocket.

Or, at least, he tried to. He hadn’t been watching what he was doing, so he actually dropped it to the floor.

“Shit,” he swore.

He knelt down to pick it up, and stood back up.

It was a little too quickly, as it seemed, and he hit the back of his head right on the sink as he rose to his feet.

“Fuck!” he yelled. He wavered where he stood, and caught himself on the trash can.

He took a few deep breaths and tried to focus on something – anything – in front of him.

He felt dizzy and a bit foggy.

He leaned his forearms against the wall and rested his head against them, trying to wait for the pain and nausea he was experiencing to pass.

For a second, he thought he might get sick, but thankfully, that went away.

After a few more minutes, he decided he might be OK.

He walked out of the bathroom and returned to his table.

“You OK?” Jay asked. “You were in there for a while.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just, um… Yeah.”

“All right… Anyway, the waitress brought back your credit card. You just have to sign the receipt.”

“Perfect.”

He grabbed the pen to sign the paper on the table. He stared at it for a moment, trying to remember how he wrote his name.

Jay watched him carefully, very aware that something was off. And then, he started scribbling on the receipt, nowhere near the line on which he was supposed to sign.

“Babe,” she said, interrupting his ‘writing.’ “Are you sure you’re OK?”

He didn’t respond for a moment, and instead, just kept blinking slowly as he looked at the table.

“Dan!”

He jumped. “Yeah?”

“Dan, look at me.”

He gradually moved his eyes from the table to look at Jay. “Yeah?”

“Dan, did you hit your head on anything in the bathroom? Maybe the sink or the toilet or the wall?”

“Oh, yeah!” Dan remembered. “Yeah, I did.”

“Fuck,” Jay swore. “Come on; get up.”

“Where are we going?”

“The ER. You have a concussion.”

She leaned over and wrote Dan’s signature on the receipt and put his credit card in her purse.

“How d’you know?”

“I’m a nurse, remember? I’ve seen a few concussions in my time.”

“Oh, yeah… Yeah, that’s right.”

\---

That same night, Louis was sitting in the living room with Fizzy, Phoebe and Daisy. Lottie was in the kitchen, slicing up an apple.

“Hey, Lotts!” Louis called from the couch. “Slice me one, too?”

All at once, he heard the knife Lottie was using hit the wooden cutting board with a 'thunk' and his younger sister letting out a bloodcurdling scream.

* * *

* * *

The four of them raced into the kitchen to see Lottie clutching her thumb to her chest and blood spurting between her fingers.

“Louis,” she cried out, tears streaming down her face.

“Oh, my God!” Fizzy shouted before racing from the room.

Louis heard her running up the steps, and hoped she was getting clean towels from the bathroom.

“What the fuck did you do?” he asked.

“Language,” Daisy scolded.

“I hardly think this is the time to talk about my language, Dais.”

“You know you’re not supposed to swear.”

“I’m telling Mom,” Phoebe warned.

“Go ahead and tell her! I’ll tell her you were distracting me from helping Lottie, who probably just chopped her finger off.”

“Lou!”

“Oh, right,” Louis said, remembering that his sister was in actual pain. “Don’t be scared, Lottie; let me see.”

He took Lottie’s hands carefully in his own, and looked at the thumb she’d cut. He tried not to gag as more blood came pouring out of the wound.

“OK, um, come here.”

He turned on the faucet and ran Lottie’s hand under the water.

Lottie hissed at the sensation and pulled her hand back. “Not helping.”

“Here!” Fizzy announced, running back into the room, holding a bunch of washcloths.

She wrapped one around Lottie’s thumb, and they watched as her blood immediately soaked through.

* * *

* * *

“We’re going to the ER,” Louis decided. “Come on. Everybody get your shoes and coats on. Let’s go.”

Louis, Fizzy and the twins got themselves ready, and returned to help Lottie put on her boots.

Louis just hung Lottie’s coat over her shoulders, not wanting to try putting her bad hand through the sleeve. He took off the gross towel she was still holding to her wound and replaced it with a new one before they all piled into Louis’ car.

“I think you’re supposed to hold your hand above your head,” Louis suggested.

“Well, duh,” Lottie sassed. “Shouldn’t you know that? You graduated college.”

“So?”

“So you should know how to treat a cut. You’re the adult in this situation.”

“Doesn’t mean I know about knife wounds, Lottie. I don’t cook; in fact, this is one reason why I avoid it. Now put your hand above your head.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled it up toward the roof of the car. He pulled a little too hard, though, as both of their hands hit the top.

“Ow!” Lottie yelled. With her good hand, she started smacking her brother on the arms and chest.

“Stop hitting me! I’m trying to drive.”

“I should’ve sat in the front,” Fizzy sighed.

Eventually, they got to the hospital, and Louis parked in the emergency lot.

The five of them hurried in and went straight to the front desk.

“Hi, my sister was cutting an apple and she accidentally chopped off her thumb,” Louis rushed out to the woman sitting behind it.

Lottie rolled her eyes. “I didn’t chop it off. But I did get it pretty bad and it hurts a lot.”

“Yeah, she needs to see a doctor,” Louis finished. “Like, right away.”

The woman, whose name tag read ‘Emily,’ looked between them and asked Lottie, “Sweetie, how old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Sir, are you her legal guardian?”

“… Yeah,” Louis answered slowly.

Emily sighed. “You need a parent or legal guardian present; you’re not eighteen yet. If you need stitches for that, they have to approve it. Do you have someone you can call?”

“Yeah, our mom,” Louis answered.

“I’m not calling her.” Lottie shook her head.

“You have to call. You’re the one who’s hurt.”

“No. She could be getting engaged right now. You do it.”

“What? So _I_ can ruin the engagement? I’m not doing that.”

“You have to!” Lottie insisted loudly. “You were the person in charge when it happened. Plus, it’s all your fault.”

“How is this my fault?”

“If you hadn’t yelled at me to get you an apple, I wouldn’t have looked away from what I was doing, and I wouldn’t have missed the apple. It’s your fault!”

“Is not!”

“Is, too!”

“Excuse me, children,” Emily tried to interrupt.

“You call her!”

“You do it!”

“No, you!”

“You!”

They locked eyes before turning to face their next oldest sister. “Fizzy!”

“Will you two shut up?”

All five of the children turned to see Jay storming toward them, with Dan following slowly behind her.

“Mom?”

“It _would_ be _my_ children in a screaming match in an emergency room… Good lord. What are you do- Oh, my God, Lottie, what happened to your hand?”

“I cut my thumb,” Lottie pouted pathetically. “Louis made me do it. Mommy, yell at him.”

“Oh, no! You’re not getting me in trouble for this! You’re seventeen; you know how to use a knife.”

“Hush!” Jay hissed. “There are people here, and you’re embarrassing me.”

She turned to Emily and apologized. “They’re usually not like this; really.”

“It’s OK,” Emily replied. “Your family isn’t the first crazy one I’ve seen here, and it won’t be the last.”

Jay’s eyes narrowed slightly at the backhanded compliment.

“You’ll need to fill out this form for your daughter,” Emily said, handing Jay a clipboard with a sheet of paper on it.

Jay took it from her and grabbed a pen from the cup on the desk.

As they went to sit in the waiting area, Fizzy asked, “So what are you two doing here?”

“This one over here,” Jay tilted her head toward Dan, “went and got himself a concussion. He hit his head on the sink at Applebee’s.”

“Applebee’s?” Louis asked. “Thought you were going to that French place.”

“Yeah, that’s why you got all dressed up,” Lottie added.

“We were,” Jay replied, “but then we got a flat tire. By the time we got to the restaurant, they gave away our table.”

“And you wound up at Applebee’s?”

Jay shrugged. “It’s OK. At least, it would’ve been if our food was warm. Or if we didn’t have to wait an hour.”

“At Applebee’s?” Fizzy scoffed. “Since when is that an exclusive place?”

“I don’t know; it was for some basketball thing. Ugh, and now Dan has a concussion. This has been such a long night, and we’re going to be here forever. I wish I worked here; I’d go put on some scrubs and treat you two myself.”

“Oh, to be an ordinary citizen…” Louis teased.

She fixed him with an annoyed stare, then went to fill out the form.

"Dan, how did you hit your head on the sink?" Phoebe wondered. 

"I had to bend down to pick up... something," Dan answered. "Must've stood up too fast."

"What did you have to pick up?" Jay asked. 

"Just, something in my pocket."

"What, your wallet?"

"No..."

"Your keys?"

"No."

"Well, what could've been so important that you would have to rush to pick it up off the ground and slam your head against a sink?"

Jay and Dan stared at each other for a moment. 

Louis didn't know if he should crack a joke to break the silence or walk away so he could avoid it. 

In the end, he did neither. 

“Oh, fuck it,” Dan muttered and started to rise to his feet.

“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?” Lottie whispered to her brother.

“I hope not,” Louis said back. “He just said ‘Oh, fuck it.’ Not exactly how one starts a proposal.”

“Louis, help me.”

“Shit, he’s really doing it,” Lottie gasped.

“What’s the matter?” Jay asked. “Do you have to go to the bathroom?”

“Nope,” Dan answered. “Hang on a second.”

Louis helped Dan get down on one knee, which got a loud gasp from his mother.

“What are you doing?” Jay hissed. “Did you all know about this?”

Louis and his sisters all nodded.

“Jay,” Dan started, “this was supposed to be a lot more romantic, but let’s face it: we’ve never been really romantic types.”

Jay laughed quietly to herself and nodded.

“This was supposed to go a lot smoother, but in the end, what matters is that we’re all here together. The kids and I talked for a while about how I wanted to propose, and I decided that I just needed us all to be in the same spot. Because, we’re a family now: the seven of us, and the little one that’s right there in your belly. We’re a family, and I want my family to be here when I do this.”

He slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out the black velvet box.

“Jay,” he said before opening it, “today we: had a flat tire, lost our reservation, waited more than an hour to eat, got served cold food and wound up in the ER, only to meet the kids here because Lottie got hurt. It’s been one hell of a night, one where everything that could go wrong, did, but I wouldn’t want to have gone through this with anybody else. Despite it all, there was never a second where I thought, ‘maybe this is a sign,’ because I know, from the bottom of my heart, that I’m meant to marry you. I love you, I love our family that we have and can’t wait to see our family grow.”

He opened the box, presenting the ring to Jay, who clapped a hand over her mouth in shock.

“Jay, will you marry me?”

“Yes!” Jay jumped up, dropping the clipboard. She knelt down slightly and wrapped her arms around Dan, who easily returned the embrace.

Louis and his sisters, as well as the rest of the ER, burst into applause. There were even a few whistles from the back.

“I love you,” Jay said before kissing Dan right on the lips.

“I love you, too,” Dan returned when they broke apart. “Now help me up.”

Jay and Louis lent their support so Dan could get to his feet. When he did, he pulled the ring out of the box and slipped it onto Jay’s finger.

“It’s gorgeous,” she complimented as she stared down at it.

“I’m glad you like it,” Dan said.

“I love it. And I love you. I can’t believe you were proposing tonight.”

“Yeah, well… It was supposed to be a lot less chaotic.”

“Eh, it’s who we are; I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

“I’m glad you said that,” Dan smiled. “Now can you help me sit down? I’m starting to feel a little lightheaded, and it’s not from you saying ‘yes.’”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up Thursday night! It might be a little bit past the regular time, but I'm hoping not too much later!


	16. A Foot in the Door

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning for a little bit of emotion in this chapter. We finally find out what Jay and Dan are having! I teared up a little while reading it, so... There's that.

**_Louis: ok, so my mom finds out what the baby is on wednesday, and we’re doing the reveal friday night. Can you make it?_ **

**_Harry: Definitely! <3_ **

**_Harry: As long as you read over my Feature Writing final paper for me?_ **

**_Louis: of course!_ **

**_Louis: anything to get you down here!_ **

Harry smiled and texted back a kissing face emoji before putting his phone down.

It was the first week of finals, and Harry was sitting in his room. He needed to finish transcribing his notes from the Friday morning class interview with Dr. Teasdale.

Their assignment for the final exam was to write a feature story on Teasdale herself. They were to use all that they’d learned over the semester to make a story so interesting and groundbreaking that Teasdale would want to read all about her life, as if she hadn’t already lived it.

Harry already had an idea about the angle he wanted to take: Lux.

Harry had met her four-year-old daughter a few times now, like when Teasdale brought Lux along to staff meetings when she couldn’t get a sitter. So sure, Harry had a bit of an unfair advantage when it came to this story, but he didn’t care. He was going to take it.

However, the entire story couldn’t be personal anecdotes of time spent with his professor’s daughter, so he still had to type up the information Teasdale had given them in class on Friday.

The story was due Monday, so he had exactly one week to get it done. It wasn’t the hardest deadline he’d ever faced.

The only problem was his apartment, which was a combination of a morgue and Grand Central Station.

Harry was in his room, which was totally quiet. But down the hall, he could hear Xander blasting music while he studied for his Literature final tomorrow. Harry was pretty sure Xander was reading through his textbook and notes from the semester, and wasn’t sure how he was actually able to concentrate.

Niall’s room was quiet as well, but every few minutes, he would shout out words that he’d spelled wrong. He was studying for the GSP – the real one – that he would take on Thursday afternoon. Niall had gotten an 80 on the practice test, but he knew spelling had been the part he’d missed the most questions on. Needless to say, he was going a little crazy with the spelling practice.

“Damn it!” he yelled.

Harry assumed he spelled something wrong again.

Next door, he could hear Jake scribbling something down in a notebook. He had some experiment on Friday that he had to work out, and Harry knew that he’d been struggling to figure out the problem for a week already.

Every now and then, he would hear a grunt of frustration from Jake’s room.

For once, Harry didn't feel like the crazy one in the apartment. As he put on his headphones to finish his transcribing, he wasn’t ashamed to say he smiled a bit at that information.

\---

The next morning, Liam went into work, expecting an absolutely normal day.

Work had been going really well lately. Liam currently had three different articles to his name, something he had only dreamed of when he got hired six months ago.

Liam loved his job; he really did. As a copy editor, he got to read through the articles that would be featured in the paper as well as offer a valued opinion on the story. It was a lot like his job at _The Taylor Times,_ only, his opinion didn’t carry as much weight here.

But as a copy editor, he technically wasn’t supposed to write. It was only because of bad timing for other writers, and good timing for Liam, that he even had the opportunity to publish something.

But Liam wasn’t about to complain at all.

The truth was, he missed writing. He missed deadlines and word counts and the pressure of writing a decent article that didn’t piss off the entire target audience. He’d been a writer for years before starting college, and only had two years of being able to write while there. Once he was Managing Editor, and then Executive, he hadn’t had the chance to do anything except for what was required in class.

He hated that.

He really wanted to start writing again, and he hoped that these past few articles might start to pave the way toward that.

“Liam, can I speak with you, please?”

He had just walked in the door when his boss, Brooke, called him into her office.

He hung his coat up by the door before making his way inside.

“Good morning, Brooke.”

“Good morning, Liam,” Brooke replied. “Shut the door, please.”

Liam resisted from gulping at her request.

He did so, anyway, and took a seat in front of her desk.

“Liam, I’m just going to cut to the chase here.”

“OK…”

“You know Jane, right?”

Of course Liam knew Jane. She had her own Entertainment blog on the paper’s website. Jane had started out at the _Cook County Gazette_ over a year ago as a freelance blogger. But during her time there, the blog had become a ‘must-read’ and transformed into a weekly posting.

Liam himself was a big fan of the blog, and read it every single week.

“I do know Jane; yes,” Liam answered.

“Good. Well, as you know, Jane is very much pregnant.”

Liam furrowed his brow, unsure at what relevance this had to him.

“Now, I need to find someone to replace her when she goes out on her maternity leave.”

 _Ding ding ding._ The alarms went off in Liam’s head telling him _exactly_ what relevance this had.

“Liam, I have been watching you since you were hired here,” Brooke admitted. “And you have a lot of potential. I told you before that you remind me a lot of myself, and I meant that, which is why I’ve given you a few articles to work on in the last few months of you working here.”

“Thank you, Brooke.”

“So, I’ve been sitting here and, over the last week or so, have been trying to figure out who could be a good substitute for Jane until she returns,” Brooke continued. “There are a few people on my short list of people I deem acceptable, and you are on that list.”

“Wow,” Liam gasped. “Um, thank- thank you, Brooke. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I still need a few things from you. First, a portfolio of some of your best articles from your college paper. Usually, it would be your best published works in a local or national paper, but since this is your first professional job, I can’t exactly ask that, can I?”

Liam assumed it was a rhetorical question, so he stayed silent.

“After you have that together, I’ll need you to write me three example articles that fit the style of the blog. The topic is up to you, but it should be something entertainment-related – obviously – as well as of interest to readers of the blog and of the paper. Think you can do that?”

Liam nodded. “Absolutely.”

“Good. I’ll need all of that by January 9.”

Liam did a quick calculation and figured that gave him about three weeks to get everything together.

“And then, on January 12, you’ll come in for an official interview.”

Liam gulped. He hated interviews.

“After that,” Brooke continued, “I’ll make my decision over who I want to take the position; that person will work closely with Brooke to learn her style and will post their first story during her last week. How’s that sound?”

“Excellent.”

“I agree. Now, Jane’s working right up until her due date, God bless her, so her last day with us will be February 6, and she’ll be back the first full week of May. So, if you got the position, the first story would be posted the first week of February, and your last story would be up either the last week of April or the week that Jane comes back, depending on whether or not she wants to ease back into the job. That part’s up to her.”

“So, about three months of work?” Liam confirmed.

“Yes. And that’s the thing about Jane’s blog, it’s-“

“Weekly.”

“Yes. So, every Wednesday, there will need to be something posted. I cannot stress this enough, Liam. If there’s one thing I love, it’s consistency.”

“I understand; and I hope you understand that I would love to run the blog while Jane’s out.”

“I do. And I think you could be a good fit for it. You just have to work a little first.”

“I won’t let you down.”

“I don’t think you will,” Brooke admitted. “So, if you didn’t have any questions, I suggest starting on those articles as soon as possible. January 9 will be here before you know it.”

“Yes, perfect. Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome.”

Liam stood up and left the office, immediately going to sit down at his desk.

He took a deep breath, feeling a sense of déjà vu and recalling the first day Brooke had assigned him an article.

He was feeling most of the same things: happiness, excitement, anxiety, fear. The list went on and on, but the point was, he wanted the position.

He pulled out his phone to text Dani, but she was about to go take one of her finals, and he didn’t want to distract her.

He debated telling one of his sisters, but he knew they wouldn’t be as excited for him. He wanted to tell Louis, but with the way his job had been going, he didn’t want Louis to feel like he was rubbing his success in his face.

Although, if he did get the position, Louis would have to hear all about it every week once they moved in together.

After a few minutes of silent debate, Liam sent Louis a simple text.

**_Liam: i might be getting promoted?_ **

Louis answered almost immediately.

**_Louis: why is there a question mark_ **

**_Liam: because i’m sort of in the running for it? i guess_ **

**_Louis: that’s awesome! what’s the job_ **

**_Liam: nothing big. it’s not temporary_ **

**_Liam: scratch that. i meant it is temporary. 12 weeks. i’d be covering a maternity leave. i’d be running an entertainment blog through the paper_ **

**_Louis: that’s perfect for you!_ **

**_Louis: you deserve it, too. you’ve been waiting to be steady writing for a while now_ **

**_Liam: yeah i know. just nervous. i have to get a portfolio together and write 3 sample articles. in 3 weeks._ **

**_Louis: better get started then. you can do it!_ **

**_Liam: thanks, lou_ **

**_Louis: =)_ **

Liam put his phone away and felt much better now that he’d told someone what was going on.

When he heard Brooke come out of her office and start giving out orders for what still needed to be done, he made himself look busy.

He hadn’t gotten the promotion yet; he didn’t want to ruin his chances now by looking lazy.

\---

On Thursday, Josh was sitting at his desk, waiting for his boss, Mark, to call him in to his office.

Josh’s evaluation was last week, and today was the day that Mark would be going over it with him. He was nervous to hear what his boss thought of him, but more nervous to find out if he would be offered a paid position at CSN.

Niall had been giving him confidence boosts since his evaluation, but despite his boyfriend’s kind words, Josh couldn’t shake the feeling that he might only have a few more days left with the company.

He’d already seen two people - ones he had been sure would get job offers - leave Mark’s office with their heads down to shield their disappointment.

He didn’t want to be like them. 

Like clockwork, he soon saw someone else leaving with a frustrated look on his face.

Josh took a deep breath before hearing his own name called. He rose to his feet and walked into Mark’s office, shutting the door behind him.

“Have a seat, Josh,” Mark instructed without looking up from his desk.

It looked like Mark was going over Josh’s profile.

He sat down in one of the plush, leather chairs in front of the desk and waited until Mark started talking.

A few minutes later, he looked up and said, “How are you, Josh?”

“Good,” he answered. “A little nervous.”

“Don’t be. You have nothing to be nervous about. I’ve been going over everything you’ve done the last few months of this internship, and I must say, I’ve been continuously pleased with your work.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. You’re very professional, which we do expect around the office, but is especially impressive as you’re a recent college graduate who has never had a big time job in the journalism field, or anywhere else. You’re always on time, speak clearly, present the best facts in the articles that you write or assist on. You came in ready to work and eager to learn. In your time here, you’ve only gotten better, and we want to see what else you can do. You’re a valuable asset to CSN.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You’re very welcome. Now, you probably already know this, but there is a position open in the Sixers division for a junior writer. The hours are long, the work is constant, and, excuse my French, but the pay is shit.”

Josh snorted back a laugh. It was probably the first time he’d cracked a smile all day.

“However, despite all of that, it offers a lot of room for growth, and will allow you to get a lot of practice in writing the articles that get featured on the top part of the CSN website for the team. And I’d like to officially offer you that position.”

Josh felt his jaw slightly drop. “What?”

“If you’re interested, of course. I know that your first preference was with the Union, right?”

“Sort of,” Josh admitted.

“Well, we can start with the Sixers, and possibly switch over to Union if a position makes itself available.”

Josh sat perfectly still, not sure how to respond to this.

“Josh?"

“Thank you so much," he replied with a jolt. "If you’re offering, then yes; I completely accept.”

“Good. So, what we’re going to do is have you start training with Owen, who’s in charge of the communication department for the team,” Mark explained. “As of tomorrow night, you’re officially out of my control, since the internship is over then. But, on Monday, you’ll come back to the office and go see Owen about responsibilities and expectations and everything else. Rules are the same when it comes to the dress code, behavior and all of that. The only thing that will change is what you’ll do on a daily basis. It’s all Sixers all the time: fact checking, calculating statistics, interviews, writing; the whole nine yards. Like I said, it’s a lot of work; but I think you can do it. Do you agree?”

“Absolutely, sir.”

“Good. Then, when the season’s over, or before it’s over, we can bring the idea of you working for the Union back to the table. Until then, this is what’s happening.”

“That’s more than I could ever ask for, sir.”

“Look forward to working with you some more, Josh.”

Mark stood up and extended his hand for Josh to shake.

Josh rose to his feet, as well, and took Mark’s hand. “I can’t wait. Thank you again.”

Mark nodded as he released Josh’s hand. He sat back down when Josh left the office.

Josh immediately left the building and went down to the sidewalk. He needed to catch his breath.

He hadn’t planned on getting the job, so hearing the news had caught him severely off-guard.

As he was taking his second deep breath, he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket.

“Hey, babe,” he answered. “I was just about to call you.”

“I got a 93!” Niall shrieked on the other side of the line. “I got a ninety-fucking-three!”

“Wait, what? A nine- You took the GSP today!”

“I just got done. And I got a ninety-three. I beat Liam’s score!”

“Holy shit,” Josh said. “You did, by one whole point.”

“Yeah, I did. And I can’t wait until I see him so I can rub it in his face. This is the kind of news that can only be revealed in person.”

Josh laughed. “You won’t let him live it down, will you?”

“Nope! Never! He was just so smug in the group chat we had a while back. I can’t wait to tell him I got a point higher than he did. It’s going to be great. Maybe I’ll bake a cake.”

“You’re going a little overboard now.”

“You’re right. I won’t bake a cake.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll buy one.”

“Niall…”

“And put a 93 on the top in neon green icing so he can’t miss it.”

“Anyway...” Josh rolled his eyes. “I have news, too.”

“You do? What?”

“I got the job?”

Niall gasped. “The job? With the Sixers? At CSN? You got it? Oh, my God! And you were letting me ramble about a cake that I’m not going to buy. Tell me everything!”

“There’s not that much to tell, really. Just, Mark was impressed with my performance, and thinks I’ll be a good fit for the position. I’m going to start training on Monday, and in a few months, we’ll talk about possibly moving to the Union, depending on what the employment situation is like by then. If there’s a position available, I might be able to have it.”

“I’m so proud of you, babe,” Niall gushed. “You really did it! And you thought you couldn’t.”

“I know, I know. Just, it doesn’t seem real, you know?”

“Well, pinch yourself, because it’s very real.”

Josh sighed. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“I have to get back, but we’ll talk later?”

“Definitely. You’re still coming up tomorrow, right?”

“Yup, and we can spend the whole weekend together before you have to move back home for break.”

“Can’t wait. All right, well get back to your job before you lose it.”

“Oh, my God, I really got the job,” Josh said. “I still can’t wrap my head around it.”

“Still so proud of you.”

“Thank you. Love you.”

“Love you. Bye.”

They hung up, and Josh did a few victory punches in the air before walking back into the building, hoping nobody saw.

\---

Louis got home on Friday night and saw Harry’s car already parked out front.

He’d told Harry to get there whenever he wanted, and it looked like his boyfriend had taken his advice.

He walked inside, unsurprised to see Harry with the twins on either side of him.

Harry sat on the floor in front of the couch, with his laptop on top of his stretched-out legs, while Daisy and Phoebe braided his hair.

If Louis had known to expect this, he would’ve had his phone out and ready to take a picture of the sweet moment. But alas, he was too slow, and Harry smirked up at him.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.

“Wouldn’t dare,” Louis replied, holding his hands up in surrender. “You’re still working on your paper for Feature Writing?”

Harry nodded, and was quickly told off by Phoebe, who complained she had to start her braid all over.

Louis rolled his eyes, but nodded his head, encouraging Harry to continue.

“I wrote it about Teasdale and Lux,” Harry started to say, “and how Teasdale successfully raised her daughter while getting her PhD, and how she still does while teaching three college courses and advising the newspaper. I talked about Tom in there a little bit, too, and how they broke up but they’re still good parents and all that.”

“Sounds good. Yeah, when I had to do that assignment, mine was about how Teasdale wanted to be a hairstylist and makeup artist to the stars, but decided that being a college professor was really what she wanted to do.”

“That was probably my next choice,” Harry admitted. “I only picked this one because I got to talk about Lux.”

"Good. And how about the rest of your finals?"

"I'm done three of them. I have to hand this in on Monday, and on Tuesday, I have my last presentation for Speech, and my Understanding Lit final. So, once I finish this paper, I have the rest of the weekend to spend with you."

Louis gave him a soft smile before winking at him. 

Harry winked back. 

"All right, let me run upstairs and get changed," Louis said. 

Before he could, however, Lottie and Fizzy came down from their room. Lottie told him, “Mom’s on a warpath. Watch out.”

Louis was confused, as Jay had been fine earlier this morning. Either way, he decided to say hello to his mother before getting out of his work clothes.

“Oh, Louis, there you are,” Jay said as she came downstairs a moment later. Dan was right behind her. “About time you got here.”

Louis checked his watch. He’d actually managed to leave work early for once.

“But I’m-“

He stopped talking when he saw Dan shaking his head wildly. He stopped when Jay turned around, and he smiled kindly at her.

“Sorry, mom. I’ll be on time next time?”

“Glad to hear that,” Jay sighed.

Louis resisted from letting out a sigh himself. His mom had been getting more hormonal by the day.

He had hoped it would be gradual like it was when she was pregnant with the twins, but no such luck.

“You didn’t go in the kitchen, did you?”

“No,” Louis answered.

“Good. I don’t want you ruining the surprise.”

“Yeah; can’t have you cutting the cake and seeing what color it is,” Dan added.

“Isn’t that what I just said?” Jay huffed.

“Not exac-“ Dan stopped talking when Jay shot him a glare over her shoulder. He cleared his throat and continued with, “Yeah. Sorry.”

Louis looked around the room, and saw that Harry and the rest of his family were standing and sitting absolutely still, not sure whether or not they should say anything to Jay.

It seemed that she noticed, too, because she started tearing up. “I’m sorry! I really am; I know I’m super emotional right now, but I just can’t wait for you guys to see what we’re having.”

“Babe, it’s OK,” Dan whispered, pulling her into a hug.

“Yeah, mom, we’re really excited,” Lottie told her.

“I promise none of us went in the kitchen,” Fizzy added.

“Good, because that would ruin everything,” Jay said, pulling back from Dan and wiping at her eyes. “OK. Let me get the fir- um, the cake.”

She hurried out of the room – as fast as she could at twenty weeks pregnant – to get the cake.

“You ready?” Dan asked the room as they gathered around the dining table.

“Yup, sister number five,” Louis mumbled.

“It’s a fifty-fifty chance,” Harry reminded him as he stood up and worked out the braids with his fingers.

“It really is,” Dan agreed.

“You’re gonna have five sisters,” Lottie teased quietly.

“Don’t make me cut your hand again,” Louis threatened.

Harry pulled Louis to the other side of the table before Lottie could lunge at him.

“All right, here we go!” Jay said, walking out of the kitchen and putting a small, round, chocolate-frosted cake down on the dining room table. She presented a serving knife to Louis and said, “Would you do the honors?”

Louis nodded eagerly, and prepared to cut the cake. Inside, the cake would either be pink or blue, telling him what Jay and Dan would be having.

He made the first cut and took a deep breath before making the second. He pulled the slice out just enough to reveal-

“Pink! Seriously? Another one?” Louis screeched over the screams of his sisters.

Jay shrugged and mouthed “Sorry” across the table to him.

Louis dropped his head into his hands and let out a loud groan.

“Babe, it’s all right,” Harry whispered in his ear.

“Five sisters,” he grumbled. “Five.”

He ran his hands down his face in frustration. “So close.”

“Louis, are you done pouting?” Jay asked, trying to hide her smile.

“No.”

“OK. Well, can you get the plates for us, Lou?”

His head snapped up at that. “Really? You can’t give me a brother, but you want me to get you plates?”

“Jay, I can get them,” Harry offered.

“No, Louis has to do it.”

She said that with a ‘Mom’ tone, letting Louis know that he really did have to go get the damn plates.

“Yeah, sure. Fine.”

As he walked into the kitchen, Harry saw Jay and Dan look at each other and exchange a sly look.

He was sure it had gone unnoticed by the girls, who were still babbling about having a little sister to spoil.

“Why are there two cakes?” Louis yelled.

Louis ran back over to the table. “There’s a cake here, and there’s another one on the counter! What does that mean? What’s happening?”

The girls stopped their chatter and listened for the answer.

Harry’s attention was successfully grabbed, as well.

“Because we’re having twins!” Jay exclaimed.

“More twins!” Daisy and Phoebe yelled, throwing their arms around each other.

“ _More_ twins?” Lottie and Fizzy looked bewildered at the new information.

“Yes! We’re having two more little babies,” Jay replied.

“Is the other cake pink, too?” Louis wondered, a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Can you cut it and tell us?” Dan asked.

Louis rushed back to the kitchen and brought the second cake, this one covered in vanilla frosting, over to the table, placing it next to the first one.

Louis took a deep breath before picking up the knife again. “It’s not pink, is it? Is it blue?” His eyes were red-rimmed, and they were flicking back and forth between his mom and the cake, holding back the tears at the mere hope of having a brother.

Jay and Dan just watched him and smiled.

Louis cut the cake again, but couldn’t bring himself to make the second slice.

“Harry, you have to come do this,” Louis pleaded. His sisters all groaned at the suspense. “I can’t do this.”

Harry smiled and took the knife from him before making the second cut into it.

He could hear Louis’ breath hitch as he pulled the slice out just a fraction of an inch.

Louis clapped a hand over his mouth and took a step back, starting to cry.

“What is it?” Lottie ran up and pulled the piece of cake out even further. She looked up at Harry in disbelief. “It’s blue. It’s a boy?”

“We're having one of each! You're all going to have a sister... and a brother!” Jay shouted as she threw her hands in the air.

If the girls were screaming before, it was nothing compared to now.

The four girls jumped on Louis, who hadn’t moved from his spot.

Stunned, he gave them all half-hearted hugs and couldn’t form a real sentence until Harry wrapped his arms around him from behind and said, “You have a brother coming. He’s really coming, babe.”

That seemed to shake him out of his daze, and he made his way over to his mom.

“That was so mean,” he told her as he pulled her into a hug.

“I know! But you should’ve seen the look on your face,” Jay replied.

“I love you!”

“I love you, too. You’re gonna have a brother!”

“I’m gonna have a brother!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: the gender reveal scene was originally written for Branching Out, back in its earliest stages. Obviously, I just revised it to fit this story, but yeah... I recycle stuff I write. Oops. 
> 
> Next chapter will be up ASAP! If I don't publish before Christmas (and I probably won't), I hope everyone who celebrates it has an awesome Christmas. And Happy Holidays to everybody!
> 
> Update (1/3/16): I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while! I've been hit with writer's block, and am literally sitting here at my computer staring at the few hundred words that I actually have typed. I'll update the very second I can! <3
> 
> Update (1/18/16): I scrapped what I had and started all over. Next chapter will be up Tuesday night!


	17. New Year, New York

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know! I'm the worst author ever! I'm so sorry for taking a month between updates. Just, the holidays, and work, and Writer's Block all got in the way. I'm sorry times a million!  
> Now that I've apologized (to whoever is still reading this chapter by chapter, God bless you), I just wanted to let you know that this chapter has flashbacks. The italic parts are the flashbacks, and the regular words are what's actually happening. There's a time jump of a few weeks, and sometimes, time jumps are needed to move the plot along. OT5 is back in NYC during winter break, and there's a little bit of Larry drama, but it all gets resolved. 
> 
> Also, I only read through this ONCE, instead of the usual 2-3 times I usually proofread, so if you spot any mistakes, let me know. I wrote 2/3 of this yesterday, so if it seems a little rushed, well... That's why. 
> 
> Anyway. Enjoy!

**_Harry: Don’t act like nothing’s wrong. You were completely off at the party, and you know it._ **

**_Louis: I know no such thing. There’s nothing wrong, babe. I promise._ **

**_Harry: Shove it. Tell me what your problem is._ **

**_Louis: Nothing!_ **

**_Harry: Whatever. I’m getting on my train. I’ll see you soon._ **

**_Louis: Don’t be like that. Let’s have a good day._ **

**_Louis: Please?????_ **

**_Louis: So you’re just not gonna talk to me?_ **

**_Louis: Harry, come on._ **

\---

Louis put his phone in his pocket with a sigh. He looked out of the train window and heard the conductor say that New York Penn Station, their destination, was the next stop.

“So we’re starting with the Central Park Zoo, right?” Zayn asked, shifting in his seat a bit.

Liam nodded. “Yeah. It’s only open until 4:30, so we have to make sure we get in and see the animals they have. They don’t have a lot, but we should see all of them.”

“It’s a walk, isn’t it?”

“A bit. Like, thirty blocks? But then we’ll backtrack toward Top of the Rock and we’ll do ice skating at Rockefeller Center. And see the tree, of course.”

“Cool.”

Zayn and Liam stole a look at Louis, who was in the seat across the aisle from them. He’d been quiet the last twenty minutes, ever since his phone had started going off. Both of them thought the messages were from Harry, but the second Louis got a melancholy look on his face, they thought it might not have been.

“You excited, Lou?” Liam tried.

Louis nodded his head, but didn’t look over toward them.

“We’re gonna have a lot of fun, Lou,” Zayn added as they pulled into the station. “We have some cool stuff planned.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Louis mumbled, rising from his seat. “Let’s go freeze our asses off.”

Louis started walking off the train, and Zayn and Liam stared after him.

“You feeling some déjà vu from last year?” Liam wondered.

“No. Because last year, Louis was happy when we got off the train.”

They sighed in unison before getting up and following their friend. The three of them made their way up the steps toward the front entrance of the station.

“Niall says they’re out front,” Liam announced, reading the message on his phone.

“Oh, good timing,” Zayn replied.

They rode up the escalators and walked out the front door. They saw Harry and Niall laughing, and Harry finished whatever he was saying, causing Niall to laugh even harder.

“Hello, boys,” Zayn called out, heading toward them.

“There you are!” Niall grinned. “Harry was just telling me about his New Year’s party.”

Liam and Zayn nodded, knowing that Harry had thrown a party at his house. Neither of them had been able to attend, but they were surprised that Louis hadn’t mentioned it on the train ride up, since he had gone.

“Oh yeah, how did it go?” Zayn asked.

“It was good,” Harry answered. “You know, everybody had fun, and we had champagne at midnight, thanks to my mom.”

“Who was all there?” Liam wondered.

“Uh, well Gemma was there, and she had a few of her friends over. Of course, me and Louis, and Jake came up with two of his friends, Johnny and Liv.”

Louis snorted at the mention of Jake and his friends. Zayn, Niall and Liam turned to look at him, although Louis was keeping his eyes focused far off in the distance.

“Well, um,” Niall started, “as long as everybody, um, had a good time.”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, training an annoyed glare on his boyfriend. “It was a lot of …”

He trailed off, not bothering to finish his sentence. He cleared his throat before saying, “You know what? Whatever. Let’s just go.”

He turned and walked off in the direction of the zoo.

“Really?” Niall asked Louis. He started backing away, following Harry. “Now what?”

Louis sighed and watched as Niall and Harry led the way toward the zoo.

“Lou…” Liam tried.

“No,” was all he said in reply. He walked away from Zayn and Liam, who didn’t know how to react.

\---

_Louis leaned in for another kiss, and Harry was only too happy to oblige, perfectly content in ignoring the rest of his guests._

_It was just after ten o’clock, and in less than two hours, they would be ringing in 2015, the new year._

_The doorbell rang and Harry pulled back slightly, looking toward the sound._

_“Who else is coming?” Louis asked._

_“That’s probably Jake.”_

_“Oh, Jake’s coming?”_

_“Yeah. He said he was waiting for Johnny and Liv.”_

_Louis froze. “Johnny and Liv are here, too?”_

_“Yeah,” Harry grinned, as he backed toward the door. “You remember them, right? From Jake’s birthday?”_

_He turned and hurried to let them in._

_“Shit,” Louis whispered._

_He stood there, watching as Harry opened the door. He hugged Jake and Liv when they entered, and shook Johnny’s hand._

_Jake’s face brightened when he saw Louis and made his way over._

_Louis hadn’t seen Jake since his birthday weekend, and had no idea how he was supposed to act around him now that he knew what he knew._

_He tried to kept a neutral expression as Jake approached him, but he realized that it probably looked more like a grimace._

_“Louis, hey!” Jake greeted him. He spread his arms wide to give Louis a hug._

_“Uhh…” Louis said, stepping back. He took Jake’s hand in his and gave it a firm shake. “Jake, buddy, how have you been?”_

_“Um, good?” Jake answered, a confused expression on his face._

_“That’s great. Good to hear it. I’m going to go say hi to Gemma. I’ll see you around.”_

_Louis turned on his heel and walked away._

_Jake stayed where he was and jumped slightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder._

_“You all right?” Harry asked him._

_“Yeah, um… Is Louis feeling OK?”_

_“Yeah, he was fine a second ago. Why?”_

_“Oh. No reason.”_

_He smiled down at his roommate, but noticed Liv giving him a curious look._

_He ignored it in favor of getting a drink._

\---

“Look, look, he’s jumping in,” Niall said excitedly.

The boys all stood in front of the window, peering into the penguin exhibit of the Central Park Zoo. One of the penguins was waddling toward the water before diving headfirst into it.

“That one had enough, didn’t he?” Liam asked, seeing another penguin hop out of the water and shake out its feathers.

The Zoo wasn’t too full yet, and they were nearly alone inside the building. Only a few families were wandering around them, and the happy screams of children invaded their eardrums every few minutes.

“The next artist at the gallery is a photographer who only shoots in black and white,” Zayn told his friends, noting the colors of the penguins.

“That’s next Monday you start that, right?” Louis wondered.

“Yup. Happy Birthday to me.”

“Did you want to go out that weekend? Like, the one before?”

“We can.” Zayn shrugged. “If not, maybe the weekend after?”

“Can it be the one after?” Liam requested. “The weekend before, I’ll probably still be preparing my answers for my interview. It’s the same day that you start at the gallery.”

“You nervous?” Harry asked him, starting to walk away from the penguins.

“A little,” Liam admitted.

The group of them left the building and headed toward the grizzly bears.

“This is just a huge way to prove what I’m made of,” Liam continued. “Like, I know it’s only a weekly blog, but you never know what it could lead to.”

“It’s not _just_ a weekly blog,” Louis said, trying to pump Liam up. “Like, it’s a guaranteed writing opportunity. You get to write about anything you want as long as it’s entertainment-related. That’s so much freedom.”

Liam nodded, agreeing with Louis.

“What if it led to like, your own column or something?” Niall grinned. “How awesome would that be to see your name in print again?”

Liam’s eyes widened. “Guys, I know you’re trying to encourage me, but it’s only making me more nervous.”

“OK, so let’s change the subject,” Harry suggested. “Zayn, are you excited for your internship to start?”

“Hell yeah,” he answered. They stopped in front of the grizzly bear’s cage and looked in, trying to find him. It would seem that a 500-pound bear knew how to hide.

“I know I’m probably going to mess something up, though,” Zayn continued. “Like, I’ve never done any work in a real gallery like this, only in the student one at school.”

“Yeah, but it’s all the same concept, isn’t it?” Niall asked. “Hanging pictures and arranging lights-”

“There! There it is!” Harry yelled out suddenly, cutting Niall off. He pointed to the back corner of the pen, behind a small, grassy hill with rocks at the bottom.

The boys all looked to where Harry was pointing, and saw the bear. It was lying down, its legs sprawled out in front of it.

Slowly, it rose to its feet and shook out its fur for a few seconds before walking toward the back. It moved very slowly, keeping its head down and turning it slightly from side to side.

“There’s another one,” Louis said.

On the other side of the pen was another, smaller, grizzly bear. It was rolling around on its back, like it had an itch it just couldn’t reach.

The first bear made its way over there, and lay down near it. The two bears sat calmly together, like they were just enjoying each other’s company.

“Do you think the bear is cold?” Niall asked curiously.

Zayn shook his head. “Nah. It’s got all that fur to keep it warm. We just have coats and scarves. Nowhere near the same thing.”

Niall shrugged. “I guess.”

The boys stood there for a few more minutes before moving on, deciding that the bears weren’t going to do anything else interesting right now.

“Harry, doesn’t your class start tomorrow?” Liam asked suddenly.

They stopped momentarily to watch the snow monkeys quite literally hanging around in their exhibit before continuing on to see the snow leopards.

“Yup,” Harry answered. “Three hours a day and four days a week for the next three weeks.”

“You ready for it, boss?” Zayn wondered.

“I’m excited,” Harry replied. “I mean, it’s a photography class. I’ve wanted to take it for a while, and now I finally can. Yeah, I’m taking it earlier than I planned to, but I think it’s for the best.”

“Can you really learn photography in three weeks, though?” Liam asked.

Harry shrugged. “Well, I already have a lot of knowledge when it comes to cameras and taking pictures. But I read the syllabus the other day, and it came with a list of all of our assignments. Basically, we have time every day to get the shots of what we need, and our final exam at the end of it all will be our portfolio.”

“What are your assignments?”

“Simple things, like a shot of nature, someone we love, some _thing_ we love, an animal. Things like that. The class period isn’t even fully required. Like, if there are more animals near our house than on campus, then we can opt to stay home to work on that particular shot. The professor will offer critique of our pictures as we take them. It’s mostly self-paced, to be honest.”

“That sounds awesome,” Niall said. “At least you don’t have to worry about driving down to campus every single day.”

Harry nodded. After he and Louis had first talked about Harry taking the winter class, Louis had offered to let Harry stay over at his house some nights since campus was right between their houses. It didn’t matter if Harry stayed at his house or Louis’, he would still be driving an hour. Plus, they could still see each other over break.

Now that Louis was acting funny, Harry didn’t know if that plan was still on.

They got to the snow leopard exhibit to see a larger one lounging on a large rock while two smaller ones chasing each other around.

“Shit, he’s fast,” Zayn commented on the one in the lead. “I want to get one of these tattooed on me.”

“A snow leopard?” Harry prompted.

“Maybe. Maybe a tiger or a panther or something. Just a big cat.”

Louis laughed. “Where would you get it?”

“I don’t know,” Zayn shrugged. “My left shoulder’s looking kind of empty.”

“You would just get a big ass cat on your shoulder?” Liam asked.

“And maybe down my arm. Haven’t thought it out that much yet.”

“That would look sick,” Louis encouraged. “You should get it.”

“Maybe I will.”

They stayed at the zoo for another hour before Niall said he was hungry.

The boys all agreed and headed for the exit.

As they walked, Louis nudged Harry’s hand with his own.

Harry glanced at him. Louis raised an eyebrow, but to no avail. Harry sighed and kept walking.

\---

_“What are you doing?” Liv hissed in Louis’ ear. They were the only ones in the kitchen, having both excused themselves to get new drinks._

_“What do you mean?” Louis asked._

_“Shut up. With Jake. You’re acting all standoffish with him. You mad at him or something?”_

_“Of course not. And why do you care?”_

_“I care because he’s my best friend, and he looks lost. It bothers Jake when people are angry at him, even more so when he doesn’t know why.”_

_“I understand that,” Louis said, “but I meant why do you care about whether or not I’m talking to Jake. Don’t you sort of hate me since I dated him and Harry last year?”_

_“That’s irrelevant right now. Tell me what’s going on and I’ll leave you alone.”_

_“That’s really not likely.”_

_“Of course it is.” Liv rolled her eyes. “Just tell me.”_

_Louis took a deep breath and looked out toward the living room, seeing if everyone else was accounted for._

_The conversation he wanted to have, however, was too private to have here._

_Louis grabbed Liv’s arm and dragged her down the hallway to Gemma’s room, pushing her inside._

_“What are you doing, you crazy person?” Liv asked angrily._

_Louis shut the door behind them before responding with, “Is it true?”_

_“Is what true?”_

_“Jake!”_

_“Is Jake true? What the fuck are you asking me?”_

_Louis sighed. “Does Jake still like me?”_

_“What are you talking about?”_

_“I heard you. The weekend of Jake’s birthday, I heard you, him and Johnny talking about me, and you said that he still liked me.”_

_“I said no such thing,” Liv tried to deny._

_“Don’t play dumb with me.”_

_“You were really drunk that night, Louis; I’m surprised you even remember us being there.”_

_“Liv!”_

_She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine. I can’t explain why, but yes. Jake seems to have some sort of crush on you, God bless his soul.”_

_“Funny.”_

_“I thought so. Is that why you dragged me in here? To get a confirmation for something you already knew? God, you’re needy.”_

_“I’m not needy,” Louis pouted._

_“Yeah, you are. So what are you gonna do about this?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_“Wow,” Liv said slowly. “This conversation gets less and less necessary by the second.”_

_“Well, what would you do? I mean, Jake knows I don’t like him like that. I’m in love with Harry, and he knows that.”_

_“So what’s the problem?”_

_“The problem is that he keeps looking at me with these heart-eyed expressions, and I don’t want him to. I don’t want to feel like I’m leading him on.”_

_For the first time since Louis had met her, Liv was silent after Louis spoke, choosing not to immediately respond._

_“What?” Louis asked when the silence got too overwhelming._

_Liv sighed. “Look, Louis, I don’t like you, and I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.”_

_“Yeah, well…”_

_“Anyway, while I don’t like you, I certainly don’t envy you. This is a shitty situation; I’ll give you that. It’s going to be awkward for you and Jake, no matter what you decide to do, whether you talk to him about this or not. And it’s going to be weird for Harry, too, if and when he finds out. Have you told him yet?”_

_“No. I was hoping to avoid that,” Louis admitted._

_“You probably would’ve been able to, if you hadn’t been acting weird tonight.”_

_“You noticed that?”_

_“I think anybody with eyes could see that things were off between you guys,” Liv replied. “And I’ve only been around you two once before. Harry’s definitely noticed something’s up. But that’s not the point I’m trying to make.”_

_“And what is that?”_

_“That I don’t want you to hurt my friend. Jake’s been like my brother since we were kids, and I don’t want to see his heart broken before he finally moves on from you. He’s a big boy, so I know that he eventually will, but I can still be protective until that day comes. So, at least for tonight, just tone down the PDA. If not for him, then for the rest of us. You two are gross.”_

_“Thanks.”_

_“Any time. Now, are we done here? Because, full offense, there’s alcohol out there, and I’d rather be with it than with you.”_

_Louis nodded, and stepped aside so Liv could get past him._

_He heard the door open and close, feeling no better than he had before._

\---

“My birthday was good,” Louis said when he was asked how the night had gone.

The five of them had just finished their lunch at McDonald’s, and were walking toward Top of the Rock, their next stop.

“We just did dinner. Um, it was super low-key. Like, we ate and watched Christmas movies all night. Nothing big; it was just nice to spend quality time with all of my sisters without them yelling about something or other. That was the morning of my birthday when that happened.”

“Your sisters yelled at you on your birthday?” Niall asked.

“No, of course not. There was just a lot of yelling when they woke me up that morning."

“Why?” Liam wondered.

“OK, so I hear my door open, right?” Louis replied, starting off his story. “And I lay there, all calm, because it’s a tradition. Like, at least one of the girls wakes me up on my birthday. Usually one of the twins jumps on me, or Lottie tickles me or Fizzy yells in my ear. So I know that something’s coming.”

He looked behind him and saw Liam, Zayn and Niall all listening intently. Harry was flicking his glance between the street next to them and the sidewalk they were traveling down. He’d already heard the story from Louis, but it still annoyed Louis that his boyfriend wasn’t even paying him any attention.

“Anyway,” he continued, “imagine my surprise when all four of them jump on me. That’s never happened before. I let out a huge scream, and they all laughed at me while yelling ‘Happy Birthday’ in my ear. It was funny for a second, and then I heard my bed frame creaking. It’s not supposed to hold five people at once, you see.”

“Did it break?” Niall asked.

“No, thank God. I thought it was going to, though. And I think the girls did, too, because that’s where the screaming came in: when they heard the noise the frame was letting out. Although I guess it wouldn’t matter all that much; I’m not taking the frame with me when I move out next month since I’m getting a bigger bed.”

“Speaking of,” Liam cut in, “did Dan tell you what he’s doing with his furniture?”

“Yeah. He’s letting us have the living room stuff: the couch and two armchairs. Oh, and the coffee table.”

“Sick,” Zayn commented.

“Isn’t it? It’s a lot less to worry about, especially since we don’t have to move it. It can stay right where it is.”

“And what about everything else you need?”

“I think we’re doing pretty good. We have all of the big things taken care of; just have to worry about little stuff.”

“Yeah, like I need a coffeemaker,” Liam jumped in. “And a blender for the kitchen.”

“I have to buy a tea kettle,” Louis added. “And then like, sheets and towels and other random stuff.”

“Did you take off work that week? I did.”

“Yeah, I did. Grimshaw wasn’t too happy, but I told him I needed to move. A day or two just wasn’t gonna cut it.”

“Do you need any help with it?” Niall wondered. “I mean, I guess you can’t officially start until Monday night or Tuesday, huh?”

“Yeah, probably Tuesday,” Louis answered. “We can technically move in on Harry’s birthday. But we’re not going to be around that day. So before I forget, let me tell you guys what I have planned for that.”

On the day of Louis’ birthday, he and Harry talked about what to do for Harry’s 21st. Louis had taken care of most of the planning, but just needed Harry’s approval for what he had thought of.

“OK, so…” Louis started. “Harry’s birthday is on that Sunday, which sucks, by the way.”

“Not my fault,” Harry said from behind him. It was the first time he’d spoken in a while; it caught Louis slightly off-guard.

“I know, babe; I know. Anyway, I was thinking if we went to A.C. on Sunday, when Harry is already twenty-one, then there will be no problems going on the casino floor or anything, and, of course, we can stay the night.”

“Sweet,” Niall said. “I can skip class.”

“But you’ll be back for the meeting for the paper,” Liam reminded him.

“Oh, right… The paper.”

Louis grinned. “You have to be there, and you know it.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Yeah, Dani will kill me if I miss that meeting, even if it is my birthday,” Harry added.

“I should be fine for that,” Zayn told them. “I won’t have to be at the gallery until the afternoon.”

“And I’ll already be off that week, so I’m good,” Liam said.

Louis grinned. “Perfect. Niall, I already talked to Josh about it, but if you could just confirm it with him?”

“Will do,” Niall replied. “Oh, and Xander and Jake will want to come. So what does that put as at? Eight of us going?”

“Oh, Louis,” Harry said in a fake, understanding tone, “will you be OK if Jake goes? I know he’s my roommate and all, but if you don’t want him there, I totally get it.”

“I’ll be fine, Harry,” Louis answered through gritted teeth.

“You sure? Wouldn’t want you to feel awkward.”

“What’s going on?” Niall asked confusedly. “Why are you guys mad about Jake?”

“No reason,” Louis dismissed. “Oh, look. We’re here.”

He hurried into Top of the Rock, the building in front of them.

They had bought tickets ahead of time, so they were able to walk toward the elevators that would take them to the top.

When the doors opened, they found themselves in a large, open room with wide, floor-length windows on every wall.

“Oh, shit,” Zayn muttered as he stepped off the elevators. “Why do I do this to myself?”

“Because you love us.” Louis grinned and slung an arm around Zayn’s shoulders. “You survived the Empire State Building; you’ll survive this.”

“There are like, gates and stuff to keep us in, right?”

“Um, yeah.”

They walked outside, onto the lower deck.

“Oh, hell, no!” Zayn protested. “No way.”

Louis tried not to laugh as he took in the sight in front of him.

They were on a standard observation deck, only, instead of a gate or fence or anything that looked remotely sturdy, they were kept in by large, tall sections of Plexiglas.

Louis understood Zayn’s fear of heights, and couldn’t blame him for not wanting to get too close.

“I’m going back inside,” Zayn said.

“Zayn, come on, just take a picture with us,” Liam tried.

“Nope! Call me when they build a gate.”

Zayn hurried inside the building, leaving the other four outside.

“The upper deck has more of a protective barrier,” Louis said. “Maybe we can get him out for that.”

The others nodded, and they walked out toward the glass.

Liam’s breath hitched as he took in the sights below. Once again, they were so high up that the people looked like ants. There were skyscrapers all around them, and the ones on the horizon looked like they were made out of Legos.

Niall peered down, trying to see as much as he could from behind the glass.

They had all pulled out their phones, snapping pictures of their view. They spread out, wanting to see New York from as many angles as they could.

Louis moved all the way to the other end where there was an opening between two small groups of families and friends.

He took another picture and felt someone come up beside him. He didn’t have to look to know it was Harry.

Louis checked the photo he just took and leaned his head against Harry’s shoulder. They stood in silence before Harry spoke first.

“The last time we were up this high, we were apologizing.”

Louis chuckled. “Yeah, we were; because we were both being dumb.”

“Pretty much. God, that feels like a lifetime ago.”

“It sort of was. I mean, it was last year. We weren’t dating yet, and at that point, I didn’t think we ever would be.”

“And yet, two months later…”

“You orchestrated what could possibly be the greatest introduction, pick-up line and first, second and third dates ever.”

Harry laughed. “God, that took so much work.”

Louis snuggled his face more into Harry’s arm.

“But it was worth it, babe.”

Harry leaned down and kissed Louis on the top of his head.

After another few minutes, Harry asked, “Can you tell me what’s wrong now?”

Louis froze, not wanting to answer the question, knowing that whatever he said would probably start a fight.

“Lou,” Harry sighed, sensing his boyfriend’s hesitation.

“Not here, Harry. Come on; let’s just have a good day.”

“I’m trying to, but I keep getting this nagging feeling in the back of my head that you’re hiding something. Which you are, by the way. I know there was something wrong at New Year’s.”

“Well, yeah, there was, but-”

“So tell me what it was,” Harry insisted. “It was something to do with Jake, right? Did he say something to offend you?”

Louis took a deep breath, and was about to attempt to answer Harry when he heard Zayn behind them.

“All right, let’s go.”

Zayn charged toward the steps leading to the upper deck, not looking toward the glass at all. Niall hurried behind him and hissed at them, “Hurry up before he changes his mind and goes back inside.”

Liam came up next and said, “I told him there were actual gates up there, so he’s willing to go up there for a little bit.”

Harry glanced down at Louis and told Liam, “OK. Here we come.”

Liam nodded and followed Zayn and Niall to the next deck.

“We’re finishing this later,” Harry promised.

Louis just nodded, and they followed their friends.

\---

_“Does everybody have champagne?” Harry called out, filling another glass. Gemma was hurrying around the room, passing out noisemakers, as well._

_There were only a few minutes left until midnight, and everyone was gathered in front of the television._

_“Thank my mom for this,” Harry grinned, handing Louis some champagne._

_“I will the next time I see her,” Louis replied._

_“So, have any New Year’s resolutions?”_

_“Hmm… Well, I guess just do more writing at work? And, spend more time with you? I think that’s all I need in life.”_

_Harry smiled and kissed his boyfriend._

_“Not yet! We have three more minutes!”_

_“Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”_

_“Well what are your resolutions?”_

_“Spend more time with you,” Harry answered. “This last semester was hell, so I want to make sure that changes. For sure.”_

_“Of course we make the same resolution. Why wouldn’t we?”_

_“We’re so lame.”_

_“We really are.”_

_Louis looked past Harry for a second and saw Jake standing with Johnny and Liv. The three of them were laughing about something, and Jake looked over in their direction._

_He smiled at Louis, who gave him just a stiff smirk in return._

_“Less than a minute to go,” Harry enthused._

_The two of them were at the back of the room, so Louis could see the excited looks on everyone’s faces._

_Soon, they were counting down._

_“Three… two… one! Happy New Year!”_

_The volume in the room quickly rose as everyone cheered and shook their noisemakers._

_Louis turned to Harry and leaned in, kissing him softly on the lips. Harry kissed him back, wrapping an arm around Louis’ neck and pulling him close._

_Harry smiled and leaned back against the wall, bringing Louis with him._

_They lost themselves in their kiss, forgetting where exactly they were. Louis leaned up on his tiptoes, pressing his lips more firmly to Harry’s._

_Louis shifted his noisemaker to the same hand that held his champagne, and wrapped his free arm around Harry’s waist. He lined up their crotches, but before he could do anything else, they heard someone clearing their throat behind them._

_They turned and saw Gemma’s friend Krystal smirking at them. “Tone it down a bit, boys. You’re still in public.”_

_They both smiled at her before turning back to each other._

_“Happy New Year, baby,” Louis said._

_“Happy New Year, babe.”_

_They clinked their glasses together and took sips of their champagne._

_The noise had died down, so they could hear themselves think again._

_Louis kissed Harry once more._

_Harry beamed, and hid his face in the crook of Louis’ neck. Louis nuzzled back against him, and looked over to see Jake averting his gaze. Liv was, of course, next to him, shooting daggers his way._

_Suddenly uncomfortable, Louis took a step back, and Harry looked up in confusion._

_“What?”_

_“Nothing.” Louis shook his head before taking another sip of champagne._

_Harry glanced around and, seeing Jake and Liv as the only people looking anywhere near them, looked back to Louis._

_“What? Jake?”_

_“No. Nothing, it’s fine.”_

_“You’re not fine; you’re all tense. What’s the matter?”_

_Louis was saved from answering as Gemma walked over. “H, Mom’s on the phone to say ‘Happy New Year,’” she said, holding out her cell._

_With one last look at Louis, Harry took the phone in his hand and started speaking into it._

_Louis used that as an excuse to get away._

\---

“I’m gonna fall,” Zayn grumbled as he inched slowly forward on his ice skates.

After they left Top of the Rock, they made their way over to the ice rink at Rockefeller Center just around the corner.

Niall and Harry were the pros at ice skating, it seemed, as the two of them were moving around the rink at an easy pace.

The others, however, had no such luck.

“Why don’t you just grab onto the wall like me?” Liam suggested. He was hunched over, clinging to the wall surrounding the outside of the rink for dear life. But he hadn’t fallen yet, unlike Louis, who still had bits of ice all over the back of his jeans.

“This is the worst day of my life,” Zayn continued as if Liam hadn’t said anything.

“Oh, boy, here we go,” Louis chuckled.

“First, you guys make me get up at like, six in the morning because we had to take an early train.”

“Not our fault it takes you two hours to get ready,” Liam said.

“ _Then,_ you make me go like, seventy stories up because I just _had_ to see the view from the top, and there was nothing there but a bunch of pieces of plastic preventing me from a certain death.”

“You’re really dramatic when you’re struggling,” Louis commented. His balance started to waver and he immediately halted where he was, allowing Liam and Zayn to get a few more inches ahead of him.

“And now, you made me put on skates with razor blades on the bottom so that if I fall, my fingers will almost certainly be sliced off by a random seven-year-old who’s more talented than me. I hate you all.”

“Are you done yet?” Liam asked. “Because I think I might be getting the hang of this.”

It was true. His posture had straightened up a lot, and he was moving in even strides.

“No.”

“OK, then.”

Just then, Niall skated up to them, and did one of those fancy stops that sprayed them with small ice chips. “You boys doing OK?” he wondered.

“Just peachy,” Zayn gritted out.

“Zayn’s struggling a little bit.” Louis grinned.

Zayn swung an arm out. It didn’t hit Louis, but in his attempt to dodge it, he lost his balance and fell down to the ice. Of course, the swing had also thrown Zayn off balance and he toppled over, too.

The two of them groaned in pain, and slightly in embarrassment.

“Wow,” Niall commented. “You guys are terrible at this.”

“Speak for them,” Liam called out, as he started getting farther away from his friends.

Niall rolled his eyes and helped them up one at a time. By the time Zayn and Louis were back on their feet, Harry had joined them, tired of skating laps around them.

“I’ll help you, Zayn,” Niall offered. “Come on.”

“No. I’m done. I’m tired.”

“Yeah, right. Let’s go.”

Niall wrapped an arm around Zayn’s waist and tried to talk him through the skating process.

Zayn wore a skeptical look on his face as they started moving away from Harry and Louis.

“Would you like some help?” Harry asked, extending a hand.

“I just want to go around once.”

“We can do that.”

Harry started moving very slowly, and Louis held tightly onto his hand.

“Just relax a little bit,” Harry instructed.

“Every time I relax, I fall.”

“Yeah, but if you’re tense, you’re even more likely to fall.”

“So no matter what I do, I’m going to fall?” Louis asked.

Harry chuckled. “Fine. Just hold my hand.”

Louis could do that. He let Harry pull the two of them along.

They passed Niall and Zayn, who had given up and refused to move from his spot against the wall. They nearly caught up to Liam, who had moved away from the wall and was now skating carefully on his own.

As promised, they went around once before getting off. They took off their skates and returned them.

“Now can we talk?” Harry wondered as they finished putting on their own shoes.

Louis nodded, because, he’d put it off for long enough. Now, his only problem was what to say. He didn’t want to tell Harry the whole truth, couldn’t let him know that Jake potentially still had feelings for him. Louis didn’t know how he would react, and Louis definitely didn’t want Harry’s friendship with Jake to be affected in any way.

So he settled for a partial truth.

“Liv doesn’t like me,” Louis admitted.

“Of course she does!”

“Yeah, no. She doesn’t. Seems to hate me, actually.”

“Why would she hate you?” Harry wondered. “She barely knows you.”

“She doesn’t like that I dated you and Jake last year. She especially can’t stand that I was with you guys at the same time for a while. I mean, when she met me at Jake’s birthday party, she already had it out for me. She glared at me the whole night. I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”

“But that’s all in the past… Why would she still be bothered by that?”

“Uh… I guess, because… She hates that I screwed her friend over?”

Harry thought it over, and seemed to agree with it.

“So is that why you were being weird around Jake?” Harry asked. “Because Liv is one of his best friends? And if she doesn’t like you, you think he doesn’t, either?”

Louis wasn’t proud of it, but he saw his way out of this situation, and he took it.

“Yeah,” he lied. “That’s it. That’s it exactly.”

“Louis, that’s ridiculous. You know Jake loves you.”

_Yeah, that’s the problem._

“I know, but I don’t want him to feel weird because his friend doesn’t like me and he’s still friends with me. I don’t know. It’s not that big a deal, though, Harry. I promise.”

“I’ve never seen you so affected by somebody not liking you before. That’s weird.”

“What can I say? I’m sensitive.”

Harry smiled. “That’s not how I would describe you, but you sometimes can be.”

“So, are we OK?” Louis asked after a moment.

“Of course we’re OK. You just need to tell me these things so I don’t think there’s something really big going on. All right?”

Louis nodded. “OK. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry; just be honest with me.”

Louis pressed his lips together, holding back the rest of what was wrong with him. That’s when they heard the yells of their three friends.

They looked over just as Zayn hit the ice, pulling Niall and Liam down with him.

Apparently, Zayn had been coaxed away from his spot against the wall, only to injure the other two.

“Oh, boy,” Harry commented.

They looked at each other before going over to the ice to make sure their friends were OK.

\---

After they finished at the rink, they headed back to the train station, getting food from Dunkin Donuts before preparing to leave.

“All right, boys,” Niall said, “we’ll get together for Zayn’s birthday or something?”

“If not mine, then Harry’s,” Zayn replied.

“Sounds good. Hugs all around.”

Niall hugged each of his friends and tipped his imaginary hat before heading toward his track.

“It’s been fun, guys, as expected,” Harry said next. “Can’t wait to do this again next year.”

“Absolutely,” Liam agreed.

He and Zayn gave Harry a hug before backing up to give him and Louis some privacy.

“I love you,” Louis said.

“I love you, too.”

They pecked each other’s lips before going in for a more lingering kiss.

“Good luck on your class tomorrow,” Louis told his boyfriend. “You’re going to kill it.”

“I hope so; otherwise I’ll have to take it over again.”

“You won’t have to. I know it.”

“Thanks.”

Harry gave Louis another quick kiss. “Call me when you get home.”

“It’ll be late. I got another two-and-a-half hours of traveling ahead of me.”

“Call me when you get home,” Harry repeated.

“OK, OK.”

They kissed one more time before Harry headed in the direction of his track. He waved good-bye as he went.

Louis, Zayn and Liam went to their track and saw that they had another twenty minutes before it would begin boarding.

“So, you want to tell us what was up with you guys earlier?” Zayn asked bluntly.

Not seeing the need to hide it anymore, Louis answered, “Jake still has feelings for me.”

Liam and Zayn stared at him with wide eyes.

“How do you know?” Liam wondered.

“Heard him talking to his friends at his birthday weekend.”

“Wasn’t that a few months ago?”

“Like, three months ago; yeah. But I haven’t seen him since; until Harry’s party, that is. And it was just really awkward because I didn’t know how to act. Harry knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know how to tell him.”

“Did you tell him tonight?” Zayn wanted to know. “We saw you guys hashing it out back at the ice rink.”

“I told him part of it,” Louis said. “I couldn’t tell him the full truth. I mean, he still has to live with Jake. I don’t want it to be weird for him.”

“He’s gonna find out eventually, though,” Liam added. “Like, you can’t keep this from him forever.”

“I know I can’t. But until I figure out how I want to approach this, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“You know this could blow up in your face,” Zayn pointed out.

“Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Thank you to Ghostly_2.0 for getting on my case about not updating. For the record, if I'm taking too long to post a new chapter, you can all feel free to bug me here, or on Twitter or Tumblr. Sometimes I need a good kick in the ass. 
> 
> Next chapter will be up Monday night!


	18. The Road So Far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! *Insert excuse here for taking so long to update* *Insert apology here for taking so long*  
> Seriously, to all of you guys still reading this chapter by chapter, you deserve a medal. I would've just subscribed and waited until this story was done to read it if I were you, haha. 
> 
> Anyway, you may have noticed that there is now a set number of chapters to this story - 31. I have loosely planned out the rest of this story. It's all on my computer neatly outlined, just ready and waiting to be written. So, there's that! 
> 
> This chapter and the next will sort of set up everything that is left to come, and you'll probably be able to see things happening from a mile away, but that's cool. 
> 
> Enjoy!

On the morning of January 12, Harry rolled over with a smile on his face.

“Are you playing with my hair?” he whispered.

“Maybe.” Louis grinned at him before quickly pecking him on the lips.

“I think you were.”

“So what if I was? Is that a problem?”

Harry smiled. “No. It’s a nice way to wake up.”

“I like waking up next to you.”

Harry leaned in and kissed Louis again, this time, for a little longer.

Harry had driven down to Louis’ house after his class on Thursday afternoon, and had stayed the whole weekend. He’d been alone for a few hours on Friday while Louis was at work and after Jay had left for the hospital, but besides that, he’d been with his boyfriend nonstop for the last few days.

It had been amazing, and all he thought the entire weekend was, _I can’t wait to do this for real._

It would come as a surprise to approximately no one that Harry couldn’t wait to live with Louis all the time. And Louis felt the same way, as he’d already told Harry that once he moved into his apartment, Harry would have his own drawer.

Harry thought that maybe Louis would give him a copy of the key, too, but he could wait for that.

Their one-year anniversary _was_ coming up; in Harry’s opinion, it would make the perfect gift.

“I have to go home today, though,” Harry said with a pout once they pulled apart.

“I know… See your mom and sister and get new clothes, blah blah blah.”

Harry giggled. “Hey, now. I can come back next weekend if you want. It’ll be my last weekend before I move back to school.”

“Only two semesters left. Can you believe it?”

“Yeah, actually. I can. I’m excited to only have five classes again, though.”

“Bet I’m more excited than you are.”

“Probably.” Harry smiled.

“Well, as much as I wish you could come down, I don’t think you can. We’re supposed to be going out for Zayn’s birthday on Saturday night.”

“Oh, that’s right. Well, I’ll have to come over during the week, then.”

“Guess so.”

Harry kissed Louis on the tip of his nose before peeking over Louis’ shoulder. He saw the time on Louis’ alarm clock and said, “We have to get up now.”

“No.” Louis shook his head.

“Yeah, we kind of do.”

Louis started whining. “Do I have to? Can’t I just call out from work and stay here with you for the next few hours?”

“You could; but you shouldn’t. It’s not very responsible.”

“But you’re naked in my bed. Why do I have to be responsible?”

Harry giggled again. “Because you’re going to have an apartment soon, and you have to keep your job so you can keep that apartment?”

“Fine. One more kiss, though?”

Harry shut his eyes and puckered his lips, feeling Louis capture them a second later.

They kissed lazily for a few minutes before Louis rolled them over so that he was on top.

Harry smiled before joining their lips back together in an open-mouth kiss. He slipped his tongue into Louis’ mouth and sighed before wrapping his arms tightly around Louis’ waist.

As they made out, Harry let one hand trail down Louis’ side. When he reached the top of Louis’ briefs, he slipped a finger under the material, sliding it down Louis’ crack.

Louis moaned and reached between them, taking Harry’s cock in his hand. He started moving his fist up and down, feeling it harden in his hand.

Harry pulled back breathlessly. “Get the lube,” he panted.

“You just said we had to get up.”

“I'm already up!”

“Really? You think this is a time for puns?”

“Just get the fucking lube,” Harry ordered.

“I like when you’re bossy.”

Louis planted one more kiss to Harry’s lips before rolling out of his embrace. He got the lube from his bedside table and uncapped it. He handed it over to Harry, who immediately poured some into his palm.

“Get naked and get back over here.”

Louis pushed down his briefs, dropping them to the floor. He hovered over Harry again, sighing in relief as Harry took both of their cocks into his hand.

He jerked them off together, running his thumb over Louis’ head every time his hand reached it.

Louis ducked his head, kissing up Harry’s neck. He shut his eyes as he did, biting down when Harry gave him a particularly tight squeeze.

Harry hissed at the bite, and sped up his pace. The slick sounds of his hand running over their cocks filled the room, and it made Louis let out another moan.

Harry shushed him, but didn’t slow down any. He kept moving his fist, feeling himself inching closer to his orgasm.

“I’m getting close,” he whispered.

“Me, too,” Louis replied, his voice muffled by Harry’s neck. He licked a stripe up the other side of it before pulling Harry’s earlobe in between his teeth. He nibbled on it before starting to slightly thrust his hips, feeling more friction on his cock.

“God, Lou…”

Louis hummed in acknowledgement, letting his eyes flutter shut. He knew he didn’t have much longer.

Just a minute or so later, his mouth dropped open and he let out a squeak as he felt himself start coming. Harry groaned quietly as he did the same.

He worked the both of them through it, slowing down his fist and squeezing out every last drop of what they had.

Louis hid his face in the crook of Harry’s neck, trying to catch his breath.

They lay there for a few sleepy, sticky minutes before Louis rolled off Harry.

“We definitely need a shower now,” Harry mumbled.

“I’m gonna be late for work,” Louis realized. He turned to face Harry again and added, “But it was worth it, baby.”

Harry smiled and kissed Louis again. “Come on.”

They got out of bed slowly.

“You know,” Louis started, “when we live together, we’re gonna have to set our alarms earlier than we need to, because I feel like what happened here will happen a lot.”

Harry froze momentarily before slowly relaxing.

He let a grin cross his face as he realized what Louis had just said. _When_ we live together.

Once again, the two of them were on the same page.

\---

Liam walked into the office that same day, clutching a coffee cup tightly in one hand and trying to steady his breath.

Today was the day that he would have his interview for the entertainment blogger position. Last night, he and Dani had gone over potential questions that Brooke might ask, and while he felt ready, he knew that all of the preparation in the world didn’t ensure that he would actually get out logical answers.

He sat down at his desk and let out a deep breath. Everybody was moving around him as normal, and for the time being, Liam tried to focus on that.

“Hey, Liam.”

He looked over and saw his coworker Shannon sitting at her desk, the one right next to his.

“Hey, Shan.”

“I didn’t know you drink coffee.”

“I don’t,” Liam immediately answered.

She raised an eyebrow, and before she could ask why he had coffee if he didn’t drink it, he continued, “I just bought it thinking it might give me more energy. But all it did was make me jittery.”

“Oh, your interview is today, isn’t it?” Shannon asked, remembering what day it was.

“Yeah. It’s supposed to be this afternoon, which couldn’t be worse.”

“Why? You get most of the day to think about what you want to say.”

“Which, for me, means more time to overthink and psych myself out.”

“You’ll be fine,” Shannon said. “I promise. Now come on; we have a lot of work to get done. There’s a breaking story in News today. Who saw that coming?”

“Wow. Yeah, that _never_ happens…”

Liam tried to go about his day as normally as possible: he made a lot of edits to the News story, which was being updated every hour as they got more information in. Apparently, some of the basketball players at the local community college had been busted for steroid use after taking a random drug test. Now, their current winning record was being called into question, and the team’s coaches needed to be interviewed to determine their involvement in the situation.

It was a mess. But at least it distracted Liam for a good chunk of the day. He spent most of his time on the phone and transcribing interviews to help out the reporters assigned to the story so they could get as much information out today as they could.

Liam was focused, and probably only moved from his desk twice the whole day.

That’s why it caught him off-guard when Brooke called him into her office.

“Have a seat, Liam,” she said.

He closed the door behind him and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk.

Before he could ask what she needed, she said, “Are you ready?”

“For what?” he asked.

“Your… interview?”

_Oh, shit._

Liam was sure he looked panicked, so he schooled his face right away. “Right. Yes, absolutely.”

“Did you forget?”

“Oh, no. I didn’t forget; absolutely not. Just, I was distracted by everything going on today.”

“Yeah. A lot to process, huh? You have been busy today, haven’t you?”

“Yes, definitely. Did you want to postpone this for a bit? I’m sure you’re busy with this story and with everything else, too.”

“Please, Liam.” She rolled her eyes. “We work for a newspaper. If I put off every interview I needed to do because of a breaking news story, I would never get them done. Everything will still be going on in twenty minutes.”

Liam nodded.

“So, I’ll ask you again: Are you ready?”

“Yes. Let’s begin.”

\---

Also on that same day, Zayn got to Brookfield Gallery at 12:00 sharp.

This morning, his mom had woken him up with breakfast in bed, wishing him a ‘Happy Birthday.’

_“I’m so proud of you, Zayn,” she said, her voice breaking up with tears._

_“Thank you, Mom,” he whispered to her._

_“I love you so much.”_

_“Love you, too.”_

It was no different than any other birthday Zayn had had, but it meant even more since today was the first day of his new internship.

He had spent almost an hour last night trying to decide what he should wear. He finally decided to just listen to what Ashlynn had suggested the last time he was there: red Henley with the sleeves pushed up, black skinny jeans with a rip in the right knee and black Docs.

He felt comfortable in what he was wearing, so he hoped that his nerves wouldn’t show through too much.

He walked in and saw Ashlynn, along with two other women, standing in the center of the main room. Ashlynn was pointing to a wall in the back, as if she was showing them where a painting would go.

In a few different parts of the room were groups of pictures just waiting to be hung up. Zayn wondered if they were going to start on that today.

He could hear a few other people talking in the back; he just couldn’t see them. He suspected those were the actual employees of the gallery, possibly just waiting to come out until Ashlynn went over the day’s tasks with the interns.

“Hey,” he called out, interrupting what Ashlynn was saying. He couldn’t help but notice how the eyes of the other women lingered over him for just a few seconds too long.

“Zayn!” Ashlynn greeted. “How are you?”

She walked up to him and gave him a quick hug.

“I’m doing all right,” he answered.

“Glad to hear it. Let me introduce you.”

She turned to face the other women and said, “Girls, this is Zayn. Zayn, this is Lauren.”

She pointed to a girl with blonde hair, and visible tattoos on her forearms.

“She’s the marketing intern I mentioned before, so Lauren will be assisting with promoting the exhibit once we have it set up a little more.”

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Zayn said, shaking her hand.

“Likewise,” she replied in a raspy voice, like one of a smoker.

“And this is Ivy,” Ashlynn continued, nodding her head to the other girl, a brunette.

“Nice to meet you,” Zayn smiled, shaking her hand, as well.

“You, too,” Ivy replied.

“So, we’re just waiting for one more,” Ashlynn told them, "and then we can officially begin. You shouldn’t have too much trouble today. We’re just going over basic rules and responsibilities, and then you’ll have one main task to attempt.”

At that moment, the door opened again, and a guy with dark hair and tan skin came in.

“Sorry I’m late,” he immediately said.

“It’s all right, Victor,” Ashlynn told him. “We were just getting started.”

She introduced Victor to the three others before beginning. “So today, we’re inspecting the art. You’re going to look at the pictures and get a feel for the artist’s style. After that, it’s up to us to determine where to hang each picture and how much light to give each one.”

She pointed up at the ceiling and continued, “There is accent lighting throughout all of the rooms. Each individual light can be adjusted, pointed toward a picture either higher or lower.”

Ashlynn looked at them to make sure they were paying attention. When she saw that they were, she walked over to the wall by the main door.

“Now here,” she said, “is one of the many light switches you’ll see all over this place. Each wall is controlled by a single switch, which means you should choose wisely in which pictures you have near each other: ones that share a wall should require the same amount of light.”

There was a small, sliding lever next to the actual switch. She pushed it up, increasing the amount of light that currently faced the wall. She slid it back down to decrease, and eventually, cut the lights that were on.

“If you’ll follow me.”

She started walking toward the back, and the four of them went after her.

They went right past the employee break room, and Zayn saw three people, two men and a woman, sitting in there, talking amongst themselves.

Ashlynn waved as she walked, and they all returned the gesture.

She opened a door in the very back of the building and flicked on a light inside.

“Back here is the storeroom,” she informed them.

Zayn looked in to see shelves upon shelves of hooks, hangers, wire, nails, paintbrushes and rollers, paint cans, and tons of different tools. Leaning up against the walls were four stepladders, all of them varying in height.

“So, obviously, every exhibit is different. Some have more pictures than others, so we need to add hooks, which are right over there. Sometimes, the wiring on the frames breaks, so we have to fix it. There are times when paint gets scraped off the walls when we’re removing frames or hooks. It happens. Anything you’ll need should be back here, and if it’s not, then let me know. Any questions so far?”

When they shook their heads again, Ashlynn smiled. “Good. Now let’s go check out the pictures, shall we?”

The interns took a step back, allowing Ashlynn to shut the door to the storeroom behind her, and walk back out toward the main room.

When they got there, they saw the three people from the lounge waiting for them.

“Hey, guys,” Ashlynn called out, getting their attention. “Meet the interns. This is Zayn, Lauren, Victor and Ivy, and they’ll be working with us for the next few months.”

“I’m Gavin,” the first man said, introducing himself. He had curly brown hair and brown eyes. He was a bit taller than Zayn, but more muscular.

“I’m Colin,” said the second man. He was shorter, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and looked a bit older, too, maybe in his thirties.

The girl smiled at them and once the men were done, she said, “I’m Grace. It’s nice to meet you guys.” She had blonde hair, as well, but it was styled into a pixie cut. Her piercing, gray eyes inspected each one of them carefully, like she was looking for a reason to like or dislike them.

“OK, so…” Grace started. “You guys are lucky because most of the outside stuff has already been taken care of. Invitations have been sent out, and we’ve started promoting it. The three of us have looked through all of the pictures we have and we each have an idea of how the space should be set up. But, we want you guys to try your hand at it. You can already see the pictures grouped together in different parts of this room, and there is a group in the back, as well. What we want you to do is examine the pictures, come up with ideas of how they should be hung and tell us why.”

Zayn nodded at the assignment. They were only responsible for a small group of pictures; it seemed a lot less daunting than trying to arrange the entire gallery today.

“So, let’s see what you got,” Grace smiled.

Zayn pushed the sleeves of his shirt back up before rubbing his hands together. This would be fun.

\---

Harry got to campus about ten minutes before his class started.

He went into the Fine Arts building and hurried up the stairs to the second floor. So far, he liked Photography. The people in it were friendly and outgoing, and while the professor wasn’t one that Harry had had before, he already felt comfortable enough with him to accept the comments he gave Harry’s pictures that had already been submitted.

For the class, Harry had to complete a portfolio of ten different pictures, and he’d handed in two so far: one of the campus lake and another of some deer he’d spotted behind his own apartment building.

Today, they had to be in class for a lecture the professor was giving about camera angles and filters. He said it wouldn’t take long, and that they could leave afterward, or stick around to take more pictures for the portfolio.

Harry walked into the room and took a seat near the windows. He glanced outside, surprised as always at how empty the campus was. He knew that it was mid-January, so there weren’t many people around, but in his time at Taylor, he’d gotten quite used to seeing students and professors hurrying around, in a rush to get to their next destination.

It was strange to see only a few people taking their time, walking to wherever they needed to be.

He turned his head to face the room as more people started to come inside.

One guy, Spencer, came in and walked over to where Harry was, intending on taking a seat near the windows, too.

As he walked by, he said, “Wow, you got marked good, huh?”

Harry’s hand flew to the side of his neck. He didn’t realize Louis’ mark was so visible from beneath his hoodie.

“Oh, yeah…” Harry shyly admitted.

Spencer raised an eyebrow as he took the seat behind Harry. “Damn. Wish my girl liked me as much as yours clearly does.”

Harry wasn’t fully listening to Spencer’s comments, so he started to nod. And then it hit him. “Wait, what?” he asked, realizing what Spencer had just said. He turned in his seat to look at the other man.

“Your girl. She likes it rough. Good for you.”

Harry furrowed his brow. He and Spencer weren’t friends, but had had a few classes together since they were freshmen. Harry thought that everyone in the Journalism department knew he was dating Louis, and if they didn’t, then they at least knew he was gay.

“Um, well, no,” Harry said awkwardly. “There’s no girl.”

“Dude, there’s clearly a girl.”

“No… This is from my boyfriend.”

Spencer stared blankly back at him.

“Do you remember Louis Tomlinson? Graduated last year? Opinion editor for the newspaper?”

“Oh, yeah…” Spencer replied after a moment. “You’re dating him?”

Harry nodded happily. “Yeah. Almost a year now.”

“Oh.”

Harry pretended that he didn’t notice how Spencer not so subtly moved back in his seat.

“Yup.” Harry turned back around, looking toward the front of the class. He could feel eyes burning a hole in his back, even after his professor started class and began speaking.

He tried to pay attention as best as he could, but Harry had a very strong feeling Spencer wasn’t as friendly as he previously thought.

\---

Liam arrived to the bar first on Saturday night. It wasn’t as crowded as he thought it would be, so he was easily able to secure a table near the back of the room. He took his coat off and draped it over the back of his chair before sitting down.

A few minutes later, a waitress came up and asked Liam if he would need menus. He politely requested four, and she walked away.

As far as he knew, Louis, Zayn and Josh would soon be joining him so that they could celebrate Zayn’s birthday, along with Liam’s interview and Josh’s first few weeks at his job. He sent out a quick group message to let them know where he was sitting.

“You been waiting long?”

Liam turned around and saw Josh walking up to the table.

“Literally just got here, man. I just texted you, too.”

Josh nodded and sat down across from Liam. He checked his phone, seeing the new message. “So is it just the four of us?”

“As far as I know. Niall’s not coming, is he?”

Josh scoffed and shook his head. “Nah, he didn’t feel like driving all the way down here just for the night. Can’t say I blame him; his mom’s birthday is tomorrow, so he would have to just go back up in the morning.”

“Yeah, that’s no good.”

“He said he’ll just see us when he’s back at school. He’ll be a hell of a lot closer.”

“How’s things between you two, anyway?”

“Good,” Josh answered. “He was down at my house last weekend. Probably another reason he didn’t want to come down again.”

“Makes sense,” Liam agreed.

“Yeah. How are you and Dani?”

“Good. Yeah, she’s figuring out things for the paper for the last semester. She started thinking about who she wants to replace her next year, and I don’t envy her at all. I had it easy last year. I just picked Dani, but she can’t pick El. El’s graduating this year, too.”

“That sucks. Does she know who she wants?”

“Honestly, I think she wants Harry to do it, but since he’ll only be around for one semester, that won’t work.”

“Cher might be good for it,” Josh suggested. “Or Casey. But then there would be two new people in Sports, and that might not be good.”

Liam shook his head. “I don’t know. She said she’s using the first few weeks back to sway her one way or another. It’ll just be rough.”

Josh nodded. He looked over Liam’s shoulder and said, “Oh, there they are.”

Liam glanced back and saw Louis and Zayn walking their way.

“Hello, boys,” Louis greeted enthusiastically. He took the seat next to Josh while Zayn plopped down next to Liam.

“Sorry we’re late,” Louis apologized. “ _Someone_ took forever to get ready.”

“You were late picking me up and you know it,” Zayn said, defending himself. “Don’t pin this on me.”

“All right, all right,” Liam cut in, putting a stop to any potential bickering that could come of this. “Let’s recognize the real reason we’re here: Happy Birthday, Zayn.”

“Happy Birthday,” Louis and Josh echoed back.

“Thank you, boys,” Zayn grinned.

“Welcome to the 23 Club!” Louis cheered.

“Yeah, yeah…”

“How’s it feel to be 23?” Josh asked.

“It’s all right, I guess,” Zayn shrugged. “I don’t feel any different yet.”

“Well you look very different,” Louis joked. “Much more mature.”

“Everybody looks mature to you, Louis.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, Jesus…” Liam muttered.

Their waitress came back then and asked if they wanted anything to drink.

Louis ordered them a round of beer to get started, and said that they would be ordering food soon, as well.

Once she was gone, Louis said, “All right, we need some updates. Payno, you’re up. What’s the news with the interview?”

“Well, it went great,” Liam replied. “Brooke asked me about my personal goals for myself, and where I see myself going with the company. I told her that I see a long-term future with the paper, and eventually want to work myself up to a full-time writer, either for Entertainment or News, because those were the sections I felt most comfortable with in college.”

“Did she like the writing samples you submitted?” Zayn wondered.

“She did. She especially liked the piece I wrote about the casinos in Atlantic City and how much trouble they’re having trying to stay afloat.”

“Is Caesar’s OK?” Louis exclaimed. “That’s where we’re going for Harry’s birthday.”

“Caesar’s is fine,” Liam assured. “I promise. Some of the other ones aren’t, but we’re good for next month.”

“OK.” Louis breathed a sigh of relief.

“Now the real question,” Josh started. “Did you get the job?”

Liam pursed his lips out, like he was thinking of the best way to answer. “Well…”

“Well?” Zayn asked impatiently.

Liam looked at each of his friends individually, trying to show as blank of a face as possible.

When it looked like the three of them were going to burst, Liam grinned and said, “Yeah, I got it.”

His friends cheered loudly as their waitress came back to the table with their beer. “Good news?” she wanted to know as she passed them out. 

“Very good news,” Louis replied, taking a swig from his Corona. “Our friend Liam here just got himself a promotion.”

“A temporary one,” Liam rushed to explain further. “But yeah, it’s really exciting.”

“Well, congratulations,” she said kindly.

“Thank you.”

“Can we get a few more minutes before we order, though?” Josh requested.

“Yeah, sure. Take your time.”

She smiled before walking away again.

“So happy for you, Payno,” Louis said again.

“Thanks, man. So yeah, I start training next week, and Jane’s last week is the first one in February. So I don’t have much time to get used to everything.”

“You’re gonna kill it,” Josh said.

“Thank you. All right, enough about me. Josh, how’s your job treating you?”

“Really good, actually. Um, I know I wanted to be with the Union, but the Sixers are actually really great. I go to most of the team practices, and went to the game last night. And we won! We still have a terrible record, though.”

“What is it?” Liam asked.

“Uh… 8-31,” he mumbled.

“Holy shit!”

“Yeah, I know.”

Zayn raised an eyebrow. He didn’t really follow sports, but even he knew that wasn’t good.

“But I’m having fun,” Josh said. “I’m writing every day, and hanging out with actual, professional athletes. And my boss is pretty cool, so. It’s all good.”

“Happy for you, man,” Louis told him.

“Thanks. Zayn? You’re up.”

Zayn grinned.

“That’s a good sign,” Liam noted.

“Very good sign. Man, my internship is awesome. It’s only been a week, but, everyone I work with is cool, and like, they value my opinion. Like, they actually listen to what I have to say. Like, the first day, we had this assignment where we had to look at some pictures for the person whose art we’re hosting, and come up with an arrangement for it.”

“That sounds hard,” Louis said, wrinkling his nose.

“It really wasn’t. Like, I had nine pictures: four that hung horizontal and the other five were vertical. So, I put two of the horizontal pictures on top of each other and did the same with the other two. And I had the biggest vertical one in between those sets, and finished by putting two other vertical pictures on the outsides of the horizontal pictures. I worked with this girl who works there, Grace, and she seemed really impressed with how I arranged the photos. She even praised how fast I came up with the idea.”

“That’s awesome,” Liam said. “You can tell you’re enjoying it.”

“It’s good so far. And I’m actually using my degree with this. I’m still at Painting with a Twist on the weekends, though. And that’s fun, but it’s not what I want to do forever, you know?”

The other three nodded.

“You know what? I’m proud of us, boys,” Louis admitted. “We’re actually making something of ourselves. Like, we’re doing things with our lives and using our degrees and getting promotions and… Damn, if freshman year me could see me now, he’d probably shit himself.”

His friends laughed at Louis’ self-deprecation, and Josh raised his beer in a toast.

“To us, kicking ass and taking names.”

“To us,” Louis, Zayn and Liam echoed.

They clinked their bottles and took a long sip, saying a silent ‘cheers’ to all of their accomplishments so far, and what they still had left to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up Sunday night!


	19. Put Your Best Foot Forward

“OK, guys,” Dani called out, getting the attention of everyone in the room. “Welcome back. I hope your break was awesome, because it’s time to get back to work.”

It was the first day back from winter break, and all of the editors, plus the advisers, were gathered in the office for the first meeting of the semester.

“Thank you all for coming in a little earlier than 4:30,” Dani continued. “I just wanted to make sure we had enough time to get through everything. First up is something that none of us really want to talk about, but have to: classroom visits. El and I talked about this to Dr. Higgins and Dr. Teasdale last month, and we decided that, since we’re really low on writers this year, we editors will need to make visits to different journalism classrooms to promote the paper.”

“We really didn’t want to do this,” El continued, “because, honestly, it’s awkward and uncomfortable. But we need to find a way to get more people involved with the paper. The last few issues before the break were tough to find writers for, and we want to try to avoid that happening this semester.”

“Do we all have to do it?” KJ asked from his seat.

“Technically, no,” Dani answered. “We can’t make you. But it would be very much appreciated.”

“What exactly do we do?” Cher wondered.

“Basically, you just get up in front of the class,” El began, “and talk about why people should join the newspaper staff. Give examples of different articles that we write, and tell them how the whole process works: Monday meetings, deadlines, word counts and anything else you can think of. It really doesn’t need to be more than like, two minutes.”

“Also,” Dr. Teasdale cut in, “let them know that we’ll work with them on their articles. Depending on what classes you go to, you might be faced with freshmen or otherwise inexperienced writers. They’ll be more nervous about signing up because they might feel like they’re not talented enough to write for us. Tell them that you help them edit and adjust their stories as needed.”

Niall nodded. "Good idea." 

“I was wondering something,” El said. “Do you think it would be possible to get a list of all the students on campus who are journalism majors and send them an email, as well?”

Dr. Higgins shrugged. “I don’t see why not. That’s probably something we could get from the registrar.”

“And it’s just an email,” Cher added. “And it’s not about something irrelevant; it’s something about their future careers. It’s a chance for them to get experience. Honestly, you’d think they would all be knocking the door down to get in here.”

Niall shook his head. “It’s something that happens every year: we get a new batch of writers in September, and that group dwindles down to next to nothing by April or May. It just doesn’t make sense, because, you would think that they would want as many chances to write as they could get.”

“It’s the same thing for photographers,” Harry jumped in. “Last year, I was down to the same five people halfway through the second semester, because even though I kept sending out emails, they were the only ones who responded. I had Zayn going to _at least_ three events a week. If this could help us find reliable coverage for events all semester, then I’m all for it.”

Dani nodded. “Perfect. So, we’ll work on getting the list of all of the journalism majors. In the meantime, let me know which classes you’ll be presenting to, and contact the professor of the class for permission. We don’t want to step on any toes here. You can present to a class that you’re in, or go to another one. Or both, if you’d like. El and I will find out when the class periods are that have the most journalism majors if you need help with finding a class to go to. Is that good?”

Everyone around the table agreed.

“Good. Moving on: sad stuff. This is the spring semester, which means that we have to start thinking about replacements for graduating staff members.”

“I have my replacement all picked out!” Niall yelled, making everyone, especially Casey, jump.

“Don’t do that!” she shouted, swatting at his arm. “You gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” Niall said unconvincingly. “But I have someone in mind. He’s a freshman, so he’ll be around for _ever._ ”

“Good for you, Niall,” El replied, still clutching at her chest in fear. “That makes one of us. The rest of us, however, still need to make decisions.”

“Yes, so please, guys, if you haven’t thought about who you want to replace you yet, now’s the time to start,” Dani finished. “So, since Niall has already made his choice, that just leaves Jade, Jesy, Leigh-Anne, El and myself.”

“We might have people,” Jade said once Dani was finished. “I know someone from my Advanced Pub Design class, and Jesy has somebody from Advertising.”

“Even better. Leigh?”

“Hurley and I will have to look through some of our strong writers and see who could do it,” Leigh-Anne answered. “But we’ll find somebody.”

“Good. As for El and me, we’ll be watching all of you who are eligible for our positions. If any of you would like to be considered for the job of either Executive or Managing Editor, please let us know as soon as possible.”

“Should I start thinking of a replacement, too?” Harry asked. “Since I’m done after fall semester next year, will I need someone at the meeting over the summer?”

Dani considered it for a moment. “You could start looking now, if you want. Whoever replaces you shouldn’t be someone new that signs up next year. Do you have anybody in mind right now?”

Harry thought it over. “There are a few that have been reliable. Just like last year, there’s always the steady few.”

“OK. Then yeah, definitely start figuring it out.”

“Cool.”

“Umm…” Dani started to say. “So, let us know who you choose by the beginning of March. Normally, new editors start training when we come back from Spring Break, so they’ll need to be informed by then so that they can come to the meeting that week. El and I will let you know before then if we want you to take over our positions. Sound fair?”

Everyone agreed and Dani smiled. “Glad we’re on the same page, then. All right, what’s going on for this week? News, you’re up.”

\---

Jay sighed again as she and Louis walked down the cereal aisle.

The two of them were doing some grocery shopping, despite Louis trying to get his mom to let him do it alone.

_“No, I should go with you,” she insisted. “I want to walk around a little bit.”_

Jay was officially in her third trimester, as she would hit her seventh month of pregnancy next week. But because she was carrying twins, she looked like she had been ready to pop weeks ago.

“Are you sure you don’t want to just wait in the car?” Louis suggested kindly.

“No,” she answered in a near hiss. “I’m walking through this supermarket with you. Now stop trying to get rid of me.”

“I’m not trying to get rid of you; I just want to make sure you’re not working yourself too hard.”

“Louis, this isn’t the first time I’ve been pregnant with twins. Or have you forgotten that? They just… weigh more than I remember.”

Louis nodded, but he wasn’t any more comfortable with his mom being out and about than he was before.

“This might be a silly question, but how do you feel?” Louis asked carefully.

“Huge,” Jay answered simply. She placed her palms flat against the bottom of her spine, giving more support to her back. “Besides that, I feel pretty good. I started getting my bag ready for the hospital last night.”

“Why? You’re not due until April.”

“Yeah, but that was back when we thought there was only one baby. Now there’s two, and I’ll almost definitely be delivering early.”

“Is that safe?” Louis asked as he put a box of Cocoa Puffs in their cart.

“Not as safe as it could be, but it’ll be OK. Most twin deliveries are early, so it’s not like the doctors aren’t prepared for it. We’re just trying to be ready, is all.”

“So, they could be here at any time?”

Jay smiled. “Yeah. I mean, there’s always the very slim chance that I could carry them for a full 40 weeks, but realistically, they could be here next month. They could show up tomorrow. It’s up to them, really.”

“Hence the hospital bag.”

“Hence the hospital bag,” Jay repeated. “Doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”

They turned down into the next aisle after Jay remembered they needed more syrup.

“And what about names?” Louis asked.

Jay laughed. “Not telling you.”

“What?” Louis huffed. He reached up and grabbed two bottles of syrup off the shelf. “But I’m your firstborn!”

“So?”

“So! I should know these things. I mean, you tortured me before I found out it was twins, and now you won’t even tell me the names you have picked out? Not even a hint?”

“Nope. It’s a surprise for all of you.”

“That’s stupid,” Louis mumbled, leading his mom toward the next aisle.

“It is not. Listen, these are the last babies I plan on ever bringing into this world, and I want to do things a little differently. I told you the names I had picked out for each of your sisters before they were born-”

“So keep the tradition alive!” Louis whined. “Come on, tell me.”

“Nope.”

“Please?”

“No. Now stop bugging me before I ground you.”

“Mom, I’m 23. You can’t gr-”

A stern glare from Jay silenced Louis immediately.

He sighed and asked, “What else do we need?”

Jay chuckled. “Love you, first born.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

\---

On Tuesday afternoon, Harry checked the time. It was almost 3, which is when Niall had asked Harry to wake him up by so that the two of them could get to their 3:30 class.

It wasn’t anything interesting, just Communication Theory. But both of them had heard that the class was easy as long as you paid attention and did a good job on the final presentation.

Since it was Niall’s final semester, and Harry was just coming off the semester from hell, they both figured it was a good time to take an easy class.

Harry stood up from the couch and stretched before walking into Niall’s room, the door of which had been left cracked open.

“Ni,” he spoke softly. He went up to the bed, where his roommate was sound asleep, face buried in his pillow.

“Niall, wake up,” Harry tried again, slightly raising his volume. He started shaking the mattress, trying to get Niall to at least open his eyes.

Niall grunted and grabbed at the blanket, pulling it over his head.

Harry rolled his eyes and yanked the blanket back. “Ni, get up. Come on; we have class. You’re the one who insisted on taking a nap.”

“Five more minutes.”

“No. Now get moving.”

For good measure, Harry pulled the pillow out from under Niall’s head and dropped it to the floor.

Niall let out an ‘oof!’ as his face fell to the mattress. “Really?”

“Yeah. Really. Come on.”

Harry walked out of Niall’s room and into his own to get on his shoes. He was done for the day once this class was over, so all he was bringing with him was the required paperback textbook and a notebook. He pulled on his coat before stuffing his phone, ID and a pen into the pockets.

After a moment, he heard the toilet flush in the bathroom, and he was glad that Niall had actually gotten himself up.

A few minutes later, Niall came to his room, prepared to leave, and pouted. “That was a good nap.”

Harry chuckled. “I bet it was. The best naps are always the ones you’re rudely awakened from.”

Niall raised his eyebrows in agreement and the two of them exited the apartment.

Harry took in a quick breath when they left the building. “Damn, it’s cold.” He pulled on his gloves and slightly ducked his head as they walked toward Fine Arts.

“Groundhog’s Day is next week. Maybe the groundhog will tell us that spring is coming early.”

“I can only hope.”

“We’ll have to watch the news from the hotel room so we can find out.”

“I hope we’re not up early enough to watch the damn groundhog. They do that at like, seven in the morning.”

“Oh, fuck that. I’ll read about it in the car ride home, then.”

“Who’s driving us down there, anyway?” Harry asked.

“Not you. Obviously. I don’t know; I think Xander said he would drive, actually. We’ll have to make sure.”

“What do you wear to a casino?” Harry wondered, not bothering to come up with a transition to the next topic of conversation.

“Well, the one time I’ve ever been to a casino, I wore black jeans with a button down shirt and nice shoes. But honestly, nobody’s really looking at what you’re wearing. There’s people dressed in everything you can think of. There are girls in tight dresses and high heels, just killing time before they go to the club. There are little grandmas wearing sweatpants with walkers and their casino cards on a key ring. It’s really not a huge deal.”

Harry nodded. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Yeah, you’ll be all right.”

They reached the Fine Arts building and went inside, headed straight for the staircase. Their classroom was on the third floor, much to their ‘delight.’

When they got to the top, Niall flung open the door to the stairwell with a huff. “One day, I won’t be winded after taking those stairs. Today is not that day.”

Harry laughed. “They’re not that bad.”

“They must be steeper in this building than in the others. I’m always more tired after coming up these stairs than going up the ones anywhere else.”

“I guess. Or you’re just not in shape like you used to be.”

Niall scoffed. “Could be my old age. I _am_ a second semester senior, after all.”

They got to their classroom and went in, taking adjacent seats a few rows from the front, next to the windows.

They took off their coats and sat down. There were only a few other people in the room and Harry checked the time. They were a few minutes early.

He told Niall that, and he responded with, “You mean I could’ve napped longer?”

Harry rolled his eyes and got comfortable in his seat.

Other students trickled in, and at 3:35, their professor entered the room.

“Good afternoon, students.”

Harry recognized her as Dr. James. Harry had never had her before, but he’d often seen her around campus, and especially this building.

“All right, I hope you’ve all read the syllabus,” Dr. James said as she took off her coat and dropped her bag onto the front desk. “We’re starting today, so I hope you all brought something to write with.”

There was a collective groan heard around the room.

To Harry’s surprise, his professor started laughing. “Come on, now. You’re all juniors and seniors. You should be used to this by now. Open up your books to the first chapter, please.”

Reluctantly, Harry and his classmates did as instructed.

Suddenly, the door opened.

“Sorry I’m late, professor. Parking in the commuter lot was a nightmare.”

“It’s all right,” Dr. James replied. “Don’t let it happen again.”

Harry looked up, recognizing that voice. It was Spencer, the likely homophobic guy from Harry’s Photography class.

Spencer looked around for an empty seat. As fate would have it, the one behind Harry was open.

Harry mentally crossed his fingers that Spencer wouldn’t notice that.

However, it looked like luck was not on Harry’s side, as Spencer was already making his way in that direction.

Harry sat perfectly still, until Spencer saw him. The two of them made eye contact, watching each other as Spencer continued moving toward the seat.

When they were within a few feet of each other, Harry dropped his gaze. That seemed like the wrong move, as he heard a quiet snort from Spencer as he passed him.

Of course, Spencer sat right behind Harry. _Great._

He looked up toward the class, trying not to let the other boy get to him, and realized that the professor was looking expectantly at them with her hands on her hips.

Harry bit his lip when he understood that she had just asked a question, and none of his classmates looked like they knew the answer.

“Come on, people,” Dr. James scolded. “It’ll be a long semester if nobody participates when I ask a question.”

Harry couldn’t help but think that it would be a long semester no matter what.

\---

“Now, before you hit ‘Export,’ you definitely want to make sure that everything is correct on the page.”

Liam nodded along, listening closely to what Jane was saying.

It was the next day, and Liam was finishing up his training to take over her position.

He was definitely not nervous.

“You’re probably familiar with that, though,” Jane told him. “I mean, you were in charge of your student newspaper; you’re used to checking for last minute mistakes and formatting of the paragraphs and things like that.”

“Yeah, I’m used to that. I’ll probably be a little more obsessive about this, though, since it all falls back on me, and only me, if it turns out badly.”

“It won’t turn out badly. You’re going to do great. You can always have one of the copy editors look over your story before you post it. Don’t forget that.”

Liam laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. I definitely won’t.”

“Good. Um, I think that’s pretty much it. We already went over word counts, the deadlines, exporting… Did you have any questions about anything?”

Liam thought it over before shaking his head. “I think I’m good, honestly. You did a great job explaining everything.”

“OK. Well, if you do think of anything, I’ll still be here next week. Even though you won’t be, so you’re probably not going to be thinking about the paper at all.”

“I’m sure I will. I’ll need something to distract me from unpacking.”

“Is it your first time moving out?”

“Technically, no,” Liam answered. “I lived at college for four years, so I moved into a dorm every year. But this is my first time living fully on my own and paying all of my bills and stuff like that.”

“Do you have a roommate?”

“Yeah. He’s one of my best friends, honestly. It’s his stepdad’s old apartment, and he switched the name on the lease over to ours. So I’m excited; it should be fun.”

“Just be careful,” Jane warned. “I remember, when I got my first apartment, I moved in with my best friend, too. And after a while, every little habit of hers just started getting on my nerves. We’re still friends now, but I think that’s only because we didn’t renew our lease when it was up.”

“If Louis and I hadn’t lived together for three years in college, with two of them being cramped up in a tiny dorm room, I would be worried. But I think we’ll be OK.”

“Oh. Well ignore me, then,” Jane laughed. “That sounds great, though. _And_ you just got this promotion. You’re flying high, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, you could probably say that.”

Jane had a very good point. He _was_ at a good stage in life. He had just been promoted, even if it was only temporarily, would be going to Atlantic City for the night on Sunday and was moving into a new apartment with one of his best friends next week.

Life was going pretty good for Liam, if he did say so himself. He just silently hoped it was stay that way for a while.

\---

Niall cleared his throat before introducing himself. “Hey, guys, my name is Niall, and I’m one of the Sports editors for the school newspaper, _The Taylor Times._ ” 

“And I’m Casey, the other Sports editor for the paper,” Casey said from her spot next to him. “We’re here to just talk to you really quickly about why you might be interested in joining our staff.”

It was Friday morning, and the two of them were standing in front of a sophomore level class, Writing for Broadcast. There were about twenty students in the room, all of whom had officially declared a Journalism major and were looking to eventually work in some branch of the media.

“Now, I’m not going to ask you if you actually read the paper, because that has the potential to make things really awkward,” Niall joked, getting a few laughs, “but I will say that writing for the paper isn’t just experience in writing for a newspaper. The practice you get in writing easily translates into different fields. Now, I’m not the best example of this, because I do eventually want to be a sports writer for a newspaper, and have my own column one day. But Casey here has something different in mind.”

“Yes,” Casey agreed. “One day, I hopefully will get into sports commentating, so I’m using my practice with the paper to examine games, analyze stats and organize them into a way that’s easy for viewers to understand. Of course, I could do this on my own for fun if I really wanted to, but being a part of the newspaper ensures that I constantly have something to work on, and allows me to have an audience that I’m writing for. It’s no good if I’m writing and practicing, but there’s nobody that’s paying attention and giving me feedback.”

“If it helps, the Sports editor who graduated last year got an internship with Comcast Sports Network, in Philly, in the fall. He now works there full-time, reporting for the Sixers. He goes to practices and games, and writes about how the team did. Working for the paper is good experience, and definitely looks good on your résumé.”

“If you’re worried about not being good enough of a writer, or not having the experience, we will work on your articles with you,” Casey assured. “If you’re new, we’ll give you plenty of tips on writing and help you get interviews with coaches and players. It might seem like a lot, but it’s really not.”

“I’m a senior now, about to graduate,” Niall told them. “I’ve been on the newspaper staff almost my entire time here at Taylor: I joined a few months into my first semester and became editor my sophomore year. I’ve learned so much and gained so much experience through the weekly practice that I get. I’m a stronger writer because of it. Not just for my articles, but also in the papers that I submit for my classes. And finally, I’ve met so many great people by being on staff. My best friends are and were on staff with me, and it’s because we went through so much together. Writing for a newspaper can be stressful, but it can also be a lot of fun, and is a huge learning experience.”

Casey nodded. “Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m only a sophomore, so this is my first year being an editor. But I already know that I’m a stronger person for dedicating myself to the newspaper and working hard to make my articles as good as they can be. Now, with you guys, I don’t know if you want to be a news reporter or sports commentator or interview celebrities on Hollywood red carpets, but the point is, you need practice in writing and presenting information, and the newspaper is a great way to get that experience.”

Niall and Casey looked at each other, silently asking if there was anything else that needed to be addressed.

When Casey shook her head, Niall turned to the room and said, “Well, I think that’s it for us. Does anybody have any questions?”

Down the hall in front of a Publication Design class, Harry and Cher were doing their own presentation.

“So basically, you can write about anything you want,” Cher was saying. “As long as it applies to Taylor University students, or college-age people in general, then it’s fair game. I always come up with different, potential ideas if you guys want to write, but can’t think of anything. But mostly, the Opinion section is made up of what students want to read and write.”

When he sensed that Cher was finished, Harry jumped in. “With Photos, there are always events that you can sign up to take pictures for: sports games, art gallery openings, guest speakers… the list goes on and on. Most events that we cover for the paper need pictures, and that’s where photographers come in. If you don’t have a camera, we have some that you can borrow for the length of the event you’re covering. When you’re done, just bring it back to the office. If you have your own camera, you can give me your memory card, I can save the pictures to my computer and I’ll give it right back. It’s pretty simple.”

“I think that’s pretty much all we have for you guys,” Cher started, looking at Harry for confirmation. When she got it, she continued. “Like I said, I’m biased toward writing for Opinion, but all of the sections are great, and all of them will give you writing experience. So, if you think it’s something you might be interested in, then you should give it a try.”

“Great job, guys,” Dr. Reyes, the professor of the class, praised from where he stood in the back. “When are your meetings again?”

“Every Monday at 5:30,” Harry answered.

“Good. I definitely encourage everyone to at least consider signing up for the newspaper. Like Harry and Cher said, it’ll give you plenty of writing or photography experience, and since you’re all journalism or communication majors, experience is something you can all definitely use. So think about it, and I have both of their contact information if anybody needs it.”

“Thanks, Professor,” Harry said sincerely.

“You’re welcome. Did anybody have any questions for Harry or Cher?”

When nobody raised their hands, Harry and Cher took that as their cue to leave.

“Have a good day!” Cher wished as they walked out.

They walked down the hallway toward the stairwell.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Cher admitted.

“Yeah, it really wasn’t. I mean, I didn’t think it would be, but I think everyone at least listened to what we had to say.”

“I think so, too. Think we’ll get any new people?”

“Guess we just have to wait until Monday and see.”

“Yeah… Hey, speaking of that, will you and Niall be back for the meeting?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Harry replied. “Check out is at like, eleven in the morning? That’s plenty of time. I’m just missing all of my classes for the day.”

“I’m sure you’re really torn up about that.”

Harry laughed.

The two of them stopped in the lobby of the building to put on their coats.

“Well have fun,” Cher said. “Gamble some money for me.”

“Yeah, right. With my luck, I’ll go broke while I’m down there.”

“Well isn’t that part of the magic of just turning 21? Losing all of your money in Atlantic City?”

“I don’t think there’s a Hallmark card for that.”

“Well there should be,” Cher joked as they walked out of the building. “But seriously, have fun.”

“Thanks. I will. I’ll see you on Monday.”

“See you then.”

Cher continued walking forward, while Harry made a right to head back to his apartment. He had to figure out what the hell he was going to wear, and what he needed to pack.

As far as he knew, they were going down on Sunday afternoon and were meeting at the hotel. Then they were going to do some shopping at the outlets before getting dinner and hitting up Dusk, the nightclub in Caesar’s. At some point, they would also be doing some gambling.

So basically, even though they were only going for one night, Harry would need quite a few outfits.

But, he knew it would all be worth it. He and Louis had never stayed anywhere together that wasn’t one of their houses or dorm rooms. He was secretly hoping for hotel room sex, although he knew it wouldn’t be that hard to get Louis to agree to that.

Harry honestly couldn’t wait to go. He was going to spend the night in Atlantic City – somewhere he’d never been – with his boyfriend and some of his best friends, who would all be there to celebrate him turning 21.

It would be, without a doubt, his best birthday ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up Sunday night!


	20. What Happens in Atlantic City...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully 9,000 words and a smut scene will make up for the fact that I haven't updated in a month?
> 
> For the sake of the story, let's pretend that you can check in to AC hotels at one o'clock in the afternoon, and that Dusk, the club that the boys go to (which is a real place, btw) is open on Sundays. In real life, it's not. Just go with it.

“Harry! Hurry up!”

“Niall! Relax!” Harry shot his head out of his room and glared at his roommate. “What are you stressing about? It’s like, eleven o’clock in the morning.”

“Because we should be on the road already! That’s why!”

“If you don’t shut up… Niall, chill!”

“But I want to be down there. There’s gambling to be done! Clubs to go to!”

“The club doesn’t even open until ten!” Harry shrieked. “That’s eleven hours away, you crazy person. And we’re not even going to the clubs yet. We’re going to the outlets first.”

“Are you two done bickering yet?”

Harry and Niall looked to the living room to see Jake and Xander sitting on the couch with their heads tipped back and eyes shut.

“Niall, leave Harry alone,” Xander said. “It’s his birthday. You can’t yell at the birthday boy.”

“Thank you.”

“But Harry, please, for the love of God, let’s go. We’ve been waiting nearly a half hour for you,” Jake whined.

Harry just pouted. “I’m still the birthday boy.”

“Just go! How many pairs of black jeans do you really need to pack?” Niall asked.

Harry flipped him off and then went back to his room to make sure he had everything he needed.

A few minutes later, he came back, dragging his suitcase behind him.

“OK. Let’s- Where’s Jake?”

“Bathroom,” Xander answered with a yawn. “Could be a while.”

Harry sighed and sat down. “And you rushed _me_ ,” he told Niall, who just frowned at him.

After another ten minutes, the four men were finally out the door. They loaded everything up into Xander’s black SUV and buckled up.

Harry got comfortable in his seat, and Niall started texting someone.

“Oh, shit,” they heard Xander mutter from the front seat.

“What?”

“I forgot to get gas. We have to make a stop, you guys.”

Before Harry could say ‘OK,’ Niall was groaning. “Ugghh, this is taking forever!”

“Dude, are you OK?” Jake asked, turning around from the passenger seat.

“Yeah, I just really want to get down there. Let’s go!”

“OK, we will,” Harry said. “We just need to get gas first and then we’ll be driving down. You really want to get to the outlets, huh?”

“Yeah.” Niall nodded. “Yeah. Shopping. Can’t wait.”

\---

“Louis Tomlinson, checking in.”

Louis handed his credit card over to the girl behind the counter – whose name tag read ‘Jennifer’ – and waited for her to process his information. Next to him, Josh was doing the same thing for his and Niall’s room, and Zayn and Liam were waiting behind them to go next.

“And you’re comfortable with one king-sized bed, Mr. Tomlinson? Is that correct?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.

“Will you need one key or two?”

“Um… I guess two?”

Jennifer nodded and typed a few more things into the computer.

“Just so you’re aware, there will be a fifty-dollar hold on this credit card, just in case of any damages caused to the room during your stay.”

“That’s fine.”

She smiled and finished up whatever she still had left.

“OK, you’re all set,” Jennifer told him a moment later. She gave him back the card and ducked down behind the counter.

When she stood back up, she held two room keys in her hand.

“You’re in the Temple Tower, room 1623,” Jennifer said as she placed the keys in a small envelope. She pointed to the right and instructed, “Go through that archway and up the ramp. You’ll use the elevators on your left.”

“Great. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Tomlinson. Enjoy your stay.”

Louis took the keys and pulled his bag to the side to let Liam and Zayn register. 

He looked around the lobby while he waited. The last time he had been there had been after his and Harry’s huge fight last year.

It was during winter break, right after his birthday, and Liam and Zayn had dragged him down here in an attempt to get him to smile, or at least, act less miserable.

It hadn’t worked, as Louis had spent most of the time in the hotel room instead of gambling or drinking with his friends.

Louis shook his head. He tried not to think of those days, since they were long over. He and Harry were good now, and Louis didn’t like to think of the times when they weren’t.

“Where are you?” Josh asked, breaking Louis out of his thoughts.

“Temple Tower, 1623,” Louis answered.

“Nice. Niall and I are 1616.”

“We’re on the same floor?”

“In the same tower!”

“What are the chances?”

“Slim to none,” Josh said.

When Liam and Zayn came up and said that they were in 1633 in the Temple Tower, it was even better.

As they walked to the elevator, Louis texted Harry asking what time they would be arriving. He got a response when they stepped out onto the sixteenth floor.

**_Harry: Like, twenty minutes according to X’s phone._ **

Louis relayed the message to the other boys and said, “So, what do you think? Meet in front of the elevators in an hour? We can all get settled and then head out?”

The other three nodded, and they went to their respective rooms.

Louis walked into his and flopped face down onto the bed.

He was so tired. He’d woken up early to get some last minute packing done. As hard as it was to believe, he and Liam were moving into their apartment tomorrow.

After they checked out from the casino, they were going back to their own homes and having their family members help them move all of their stuff to the new place.

Louis wasn’t looking forward to it, to be honest. He was finally becoming an… adult. He was moving out of his childhood home, into an apartment that he would be paying for himself. Well, technically he would be splitting everything with Liam, but still, he was doing more than a lot of other people his age.

Louis must’ve dozed off, because the next thing he knew, his phone was ringing. He blindly reached around the mattress until he found his overnight bag. He reached into the front pocket, but wasn’t able to answer the phone before the ringing stopped.

“Damn it,” he swore quietly. He checked the screen and saw that it said ‘Four Missed Calls,’ and they were all from Harry.

Louis quickly called him back.

“Finally,” Harry answered with a huff. “I was about to just go up with Xander and Jake.”

“Not necessary. I’m up. And I’m in 1623 in the Temple Tower.”

“OK. We’re all coming up now. Niall, slow down!”

“Huh?” Louis wondered.

“Sorry. Niall’s in some kind of big rush to get somewhere, even though we’re not going shopping for another, what? Like, forty-five minutes?”

“How’d you know that?”

“Liam texted me,” Harry replied. “Told me the current plan.”

“Oh. OK. I’ll see you soon, then?”

“Yeah, we’re just waiting for the elevator.”

“Perfect. See you in a minute. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Louis hung up the phone and dropped it back to the bed.

Soon enough, there was a knock at the door, and Louis jumped up to answer it.

“Hey, babe,” Louis said softly.

“Hi.” Harry leaned in and kissed Louis quickly before sliding past him to enter the room.

“This bed is huge!” Harry exclaimed, dropping his bag to the floor. “Holy shit!”

“Isn’t it? It’s comfy, too.”

Harry jumped on the bed, and bounced a few times, getting a feel for the mattress. “Oh, I’m going to sleep well tonight.”

Louis chuckled and lay back down.

“Wake up, sleepy. Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Louis rolled over onto his back and looked up at Harry. “No, I don’t think so. I already kissed you. What else is there?”

Harry frowned as he stared at Louis in disbelief.

Louis laughed and sat up. “Just kidding, baby. Happy birthday.” He kissed Harry before his frown could become a full pout.

“That’s more like it.”

“You didn’t think I forgot your birthday, did you?”

“Of course not. It’s nice to hear it, though,” Harry said.

“Well, happy birthday,” Louis wished again.

“Thanks.”

“Can we take a nap now?”

“You want to take a nap?”

“Kind of. I’m sleepy.”

“You look kind of sleepy,” Harry noticed. He pecked Louis once more on his lips.

“So can we just lay here for a little bit? We can get in a solid half hour of cuddle time.”

Harry smiled. “Well, how can I say ‘no’ to that?”

\---

Forty minutes later, Louis and Harry dragged themselves out of bed and quickly freshened up, fixing their sleep-ruined hair.

They shoved their keys, wallets and phones into their pockets before putting on shoes and coats and walking out of the room.

When they got to the elevator, Zayn, Liam, Xander and Jake were there.

“Where’s Niall and Josh?” Harry asked.

“Not here yet,” Zayn answered. “Lou, you want to go get ‘em?”

Louis nodded and went back down the hallway, to 1616.

A moment later, he returned to the group, his cheeks slightly flushed.

“They’re not coming,” Louis said, clearing his throat.

“Why not?” Liam wanted to know.

“They are a little, um… _preoccupied_.”

“Doing what?” Harry asked confusedly.

The other five boys all turned and stared at him, waiting for Harry to understand what Louis was saying.

And then it hit him. Harry gasped. “ _That’s_ why Niall was in such a rush to get down here. He didn’t want to go shopping!”

Louis pressed his lips together, stifling his laugh. “No, babe. And it didn't sound like Josh wanted to, either.”

\---

“What do you think of these?”

The boys were currently in the Nike outlet, and Harry had on a pair of bright blue running sneakers with an orange swoosh.

“I like those,” Louis said honestly. “You don’t have any blue ones, do you?”

“I used to. They were a dark blue, though.”

“I don’t remember those.”

“You wouldn’t. They were old. I had to throw them out because the soles were so worn down.”

Louis nodded. “Got it. Well I think you should get those ones.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. They bring out the blue in my eyes.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t even make sense. I’m the one wearing them, not you.”

Louis just shrugged. “Well, then, the blue will remind you of me.”

“Like I really need something to remind me of you.”

Louis smiled before leaning over to kiss Harry.

A throat clearing behind them broke them apart. They turned to see Zayn and Liam.

“Sorry to intrude,” Zayn smirked, “but we’re gonna head over to Wilsons Leather. There’s a jacket I want to look for.”

“OK,” Louis said. “We’re probably leaving here soon. We’ll catch up to you.”

“All right. Cool.”

The two of them left, and Louis looked back to Harry. “So? Are you getting them?”

“I think so.”

Harry put the sneakers back in the box and put his boots back on. “Let’s find Jake and X.”

They gathered up the bags from the stores they’d already visited, and went off in search of their friends, finding them a few aisles over. Jake was trying on a pair of basic black sneakers with a white swoosh and Xander was texting on his phone.

“You getting those?” Harry asked him.

“I might,” Jake said, still sounding indecisive. “It’s not like I need them, but I can always use a good pair of black Nikes.”

“Get ’em. I like them.”

“For the record, I like them, too,” Xander chimed in.

Jake glanced at Xander before saying, “Thanks. Louis? What do you think?”

“Um, I- I like them. They’re good, yeah.”

At that moment, Xander’s phone started ringing, and he jumped up from the bench he was sitting on. He walked away as he answered it.

Louis hoped it distracted Harry and Jake from his awkwardness.

“I think I’ll get these, then,” Jake decided. He put them back into the box and put his own sneakers back on.

The three of them took one last glance around before heading up to the register.

As they were standing there, Louis casually said, “Oh, yeah. Happy birthday.” He took the shoebox from Harry’s hands and put them on the counter.

“Wait, what?” Harry asked. “Louis, come on.”

“What? You didn’t think I was going to let you pay for anything today, did you?”

“Yes! I thought the room was your present.”

“You thought the room that I was also staying in was my birthday present to you? Babe, come on. I’m buying you your sneakers. And whatever else.”

“No way.” Harry tried to get the box from the cashier, but Louis pushed his hand away. He pulled a credit card out of his wallet and attempted to give that over, as well.

“Louis, stop. I can pay for my own shoes.”

“I know you can. But I want to buy these. You can ring them up,” he said to the girl behind the register.

Harry shook his head. “Don’t ring them up.”

“Ring them up. It’s his birthday, and he’s being annoying about me buying him a present.”

The girl nodded and processed the sale.

“You’re the worst,” Harry said.

“But you love me. Once again: Happy birthday.”

“Thank you.”

Harry leaned in and pecked Louis on the lips before joining their hands together.

Louis glanced back and saw Jake looking away from them, clearly feeling uncomfortable.

He cleared his throat and turned back to the register to sign his receipt. When the sale was done, Louis and Harry moved back to let Jake make his purchase.

Xander came back in as they were finishing up.

“Everything OK?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, that was just Callie,” he answered.

“How are things going between you two?” Louis wondered. He didn’t know much about the couple. The last time he’d seen the two of them together had been at Jake’s birthday.

The four of them made their way toward the exit.

“We’re good. Yeah, she’s great. I didn’t see her at all over winter break, so I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like when we came back to campus, but it’s the same as it was.”

“Are you guys official yet?”

“Sort of. I mean, we have plans for Valentine’s Day, if that counts for anything?”

Louis laughed. “I think it does, man.”

They walked out of the store and headed for Wilsons Leather. They found Zayn and Liam near the front sales racks.

Zayn was wearing a charcoal gray faux-leather [jacket](https://ii.wilsonsleather.com/fcgi-bin/iipsrv.fcgi?FIF=/images/wilsonsleather/source/BK5AU964_bk5au964c93a.tif&wid=1000=&cvt=jpeg) and checking his reflection in a mirror. Liam was looking through a rack of mostly brown jackets, but didn’t look too impressed by what he saw.

“Hey, guys,” Jake called from behind Harry and Louis. He pointed to Xander and said, “We’re going to Guess. It’s right down the street. We’ll catch up with you.”

Harry nodded and he and Louis continued walking into the store.

“Get that one,” Louis told Zayn.

Zayn shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s not exactly what I was looking for.”

“But it looks great on you.” Louis didn’t have to add ‘like everything else’ to the end of that sentence. It was sort of implied at this point.

“And you already have a few black jackets,” Harry pointed out. “You can always go with a nice gray one.”

“That is true,” Zayn agreed.

“Oh, wait up. Hold the phone.”

They all turned to see Liam holding up a black faux-leather [jacket](https://ii.wilsonsleather.com/fcgi-bin/iipsrv.fcgi?FIF=/images/wilsonsleather/source/BK5AU637_bk5au637c01_v2.tif&wid=1000=&cvt=jpeg) with a removable hood.

“That’s perfect for you,” Harry said. “You need to get that one.”

“Hang on; let me see if it fits.”

Liam took off his coat and hung it on the rack by its hood. Then he took the leather jacket off its hanger and slipped it on.

“That fits nice,” Zayn complimented. “Zip it up; make sure it’s not too tight across your back.”

Liam did as he was told and found that he had enough room to stretch his arms across his chest without the material being pulled too tightly.

He checked the tag and said, “It’s half off; only seventy-five bucks.”

“That’s a good deal,” Zayn told him.

“You gonna get that one?” Louis asked.

“I might. I wasn’t planning on buying anything here, but I like it.”

Liam checked his reflection in the mirror, moving his arms in different ways to make sure the jacket looked good from every angle.

Zayn moved to stand next to him. “I think we look pretty good, Li.”

“You guys could start a biker gang with those jackets,” Harry joked.

Zayn scoffed. “Yeah, right. I’m not getting on a motorcycle. It would mess up my hair.”

“At least you have your priorities, Zayn,” Louis said.

After a few more minutes of debating, both Liam and Zayn decided to buy the jackets. They put them on the hangers and put their own coats back on.

“You know where I wanted to go next?” Harry asked as they waited for Liam and Zayn to make their purchases. “The Coach men’s store.”

“Where’s that?” Louis wondered.

“It’s across the street. Can we go?”

“Sure. We can go wherever you want, babe. Do you want to get Xander and Jake first?”

“Nah,” Harry shook his head. “I don’t really need to buy anything from Guess. Do you?”

“Not that I can think of. All right; let’s go, then.”

A few minutes later, the leather jackets were all wrapped up, and the boys made their way across the street to Coach.

The store was a bit crowded for a Sunday afternoon, but the boys still managed to browse.

At first Harry and Louis tried on expensive, aviator sunglasses while Zayn looked at the shoes and Liam checked out wallets.

“I already have aviators, though,” Harry said as a reason why he shouldn’t buy the sunglasses that were sitting on his face.

“Yeah, but you don’t have Coach ones,” Louis replied, encouraging Harry to get them.

Harry shrugged as he put them back on the rack. “I know, but with the way I break sunglasses, that’s probably for the best.”

Louis picked up a new pair of aviators and slid them onto his face. “How about these ones?”

“Ooh. You look like a sexy state trooper or something.”

Louis laughed. “Thanks, babe. I hope I don’t have to pull you over for anything.”

“Well, if you do, I’m sure you’ll just let me off with a warning.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because I would convince you to… in the backseat.”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “Well, I like the sound of that.”

Harry giggled and leaned in to quickly kiss Louis on the lips.

Louis put his sunglasses back and they walked over to Liam, who had moved on to the watches.

“You getting a watch, Li?” Louis asked.

“Nah. Just seeing what they have,” Liam answered. “They have some nice ones.”

“Yeah, they do. I like [that one](http://img1.cohimg.net/is/image/Coach/w4011_a41_a0?fmt=jpeg&wid=1034&qlt=75,1&op_sharpen=1&resMode=bicub&op_usm=1,1,6,0&iccEmbed=0) right there, with the brown leather band.”

“That’s a nice one. I don’t like that the face of it is blue, though.”

“Eh, it’s all right. Haz, what do you think?”

Louis looked over to see his boyfriend focusing on an entirely different [watch](http://img1.cohimg.net/is/image/Coach/w4013_nav_a0?fmt=jpeg&wid=1034&qlt=75,1&op_sharpen=1&resMode=bicub&op_usm=1,1,6,0&iccEmbed=0), one with a gunmetal case and band, and a dark blue face similar to the one Liam was looking at.

“Oh, Harry found something he likes,” Zayn said, walking over to them.

Harry glanced up and shook his head. “Nah. Just looking.”

“That’s a nice one, babe,” Louis told him, getting a better look at the watch. “I could see you wearing that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Why don’t you try that on?”

“Because if I try it on, I’ll want to buy it.”

“So?” Zayn asked. “Live a little. You always need a nice watch. That’s something I’ve learned since graduation. People take you more seriously when you wear a watch.”

“I’ve noticed that, too,” Liam agreed. “I think it shows more responsibility or something like that?”

“Excuse me?” Louis called an employee over to them.

“What are you doing?” Harry whispered.

“Hello, sirs,” the blonde woman greeted them. “My name is Bridget; may I help you with anything?”

“Yeah, my boyfriend wants to try this watch on,” Louis told her, tilting his head at Harry before pointing down to where it sat in the display case.

“Oh, great choice, sir,” she said to Harry.

“Thank you,” Harry mumbled.

She took it out of the case and laid it flat so Harry could examine it. After a moment, he picked it up and draped it over this wrist. Bridget helped him with the clasp.

Once it was on, Harry held his wrist up and twisted it around, seeing how the watch looked on him.

“That’s a very popular watch, sir,” Bridget told him. “A lot of people go for this particular color, as well, since it goes with so many different colors and styles of clothing.”

“Is that so?” Harry asked, still looking at the watch.

“It is. And it’s on sale right now. In stores, this watch would be worth three hundred and twenty-five dollars. But here, you can get it for just one hundred and forty.”

Harry schooled his face so that his eyes wouldn’t bulge out of their sockets.

Damn, that was a lot of money, certainly an amount that Harry couldn’t afford.

“Are any of the other ones on sale, too?” he asked instead.

“Yes, sir. All of the watches have similar discounts today.”

“That’s awesome.” He looked at his wrist one more time before tinkering with the clasp. “I really like this one, but I want to look around a little bit more; I want to make sure I’m absolutely positive about this one.”

“Of course, sir,” Bridget nodded. “It’s a big decision.”

“I agree. If I do get one, though, it’ll be that one.”

“Glad to hear it. Just let us know if you have any more questions.”

“Thank you for your help.”

As soon as Bridget was gone, Harry told Louis, “Don’t get any bright ideas.”

“What?”

“Don’t buy me that for my birthday.”

Louis sighed. “I wasn’t even thinking about that.”

“Of course you weren’t.”

“I wasn’t!” Louis insisted. “I swear.”

“Good. You’ve already spent enough on me for my birthday; you don’t need to spend another hundred and forty, plus tax.”

“Fine. If that’s what you want, I won’t buy it for your birthday.”

“Thank you.”

They looked around the store for a little bit more before leaving to meet up with Xander and Jake, who were now at the Converse store.

Louis made a mental note to return to this store again at some point.

He’d promised Harry not to buy the watch for his birthday, but he hadn’t said anything about Valentine’s Day or their one-year anniversary, both of which were coming up.

He loved loopholes.

\---

“Are you sure you don’t want to go anywhere fancier than this?” Jake asked Harry.

Niall and Josh had finally dragged themselves out of their room, so the eight of them had met up at Ruby Tuesday, a restaurant just outside of the casino.

“Definitely,” Harry nodded. “The way I see it is, we’ll be spending an arm and a leg on alcohol tonight, so we might as well save our money by getting a cheap dinner.”

“Works for me,” Niall agreed. He pulled a menu off the pile that the host had left for them and started browsing.

After they all ordered, Josh asked, “So, Harry, are you having a good birthday so far?”

“I am, actually. Even though I didn’t see you two all day, I’m really glad you guys could all come down to celebrate with me.”

“Did you buy anything good today?” Niall wanted to know.

“Technically, no,” Harry answered. “Louis bought everything for me.”

Niall laughed. “That sounds about right. So what did you get?”

“I got a pair of blue Nikes, a sweater from H&M, a T-shirt from Ralph Lauren and a shirt from Adidas, although I think that last one was a gift for Louis, as well.”

Louis grinned. “No comment.”

The others laughed, and Josh asked, “What did everybody else get?”

“A new leather jacket,” Zayn answered. “That’s all I came down here for, so I didn’t get anything else, honestly.”

“I got a new jacket, too,” Liam replied. “And a new pair of sneakers from Converse. My white ones are so old the rubber lining is coming off the sides.”

“I got new Converse, too,” Jake said. “Gray ones this time. I got a shirt from Guess and black Nikes.”

“I think I got the least,” Xander told the group. “I got two shirts from Guess, and that was it. Not a whole lot caught my eye today.”

“More money to gamble with,” Louis pointed out.

“This is true.”

“OK, so speaking of gambling, let’s go over the game plan for tonight before any of us get drunk or something.”

The rest of them agreed, so Louis continued.

“So, the club doesn’t open until ten. Which means that we don’t need to show up until eleven. We don't want to be the first ones there, of course.”

“We can pregame in our room,” Xander offered. “And when we’re done, we can go do our gambling, and then hit the club.”

“Do we want to say nine, then?” Josh asked. “For pregaming? I don’t know how long anybody else needs to gamble, but I wasn’t planning on doing too much.”

“Agreed,” Jake said. “I’m a broke college kid. I don’t really have money to lose.”

“So that works,” Zayn nodded. “We’ll go get ready, meet at your room around nine, then head down to the casino and hit the club around eleven.”

Harry grinned. “Sounds like a plan.” 

“Should be fun,” Louis said.

\---

When Harry walked out of the bathroom that night, Louis stopped caring about the fact that they were late to go to Jake and Xander’s room.

Harry had his hair down, the loose curls falling down to his shoulders. His pants were black and tight, just the way Louis liked them, and his boots were glittery. But the shirt… The shirt was black with red roses on the front, and sheer. Fucking _sheer._ Louis could see Harry’s abs _through_ his shirt, which was also unbuttoned halfway, in typical Harry fashion.

“Jesus Christ,” Louis whispered.

“Do I look OK?” Harry asked, checking his appearance in the mirror above the dresser.

“You look…”

“I know we’re late, so we have to go, right?”

“Not a fucking chance.”

Harry furrowed his brow. “What do you mean? Should I change?”

“Hell, no.”

Harry finally turned and looked at Louis. He raised an eyebrow when he saw the look in his boyfriend’s eyes.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh. Where did you get that shirt?”

Harry leaned back against the dresser. “What? This old thing?”

“No, that absolutely perfect thing that makes you look…” Louis let out a shaky breath, giving his boyfriend another once-over.

Harry smiled and dropped his head back. “Louis, we’re so late.”

“Who the fuck cares?” Louis asked, walking closer to Harry. “You’re the birthday boy; you can do whatever you want.”

Harry looked back at Louis and bit his lower lip.

“Come on, babe,” Louis whispered. “I know you wanted to hook up in the hotel room. We can get started with this.”

Harry giggled and released his lower lip so Louis could kiss him. Harry wrapped his arms around Louis’ neck, and Louis grabbed onto Harry’s hips.

Louis stood on his tiptoes and ground his crotch against Harry’s.

Harry held onto Louis and parted his lips so Louis could slip his tongue into his mouth.

Louis rubbed against Harry again as his grip tightened, his fingers really starting to dig into Harry’s love handles.

Harry broke the kiss, likely to catch his breath, but Louis chased him. He gently bit down on Harry’s lower lip and lightly pulled on it before releasing it and kissing Harry again.

Harry let out a small whimper and rubbed his crotch up against Louis’.

Louis moved his hands down to Harry’s belt and started to undo it.

Harry sighed, partially in relief. His jeans were tight, and while the pressure on his dick had been nice, he was more excited to have Louis’ mouth on him.

Louis moved his lips to Harry’s neck. He started kissing softly at the base of his throat, moving slowly to the side. As he did, he reached his hand down Harry’s pants and started lightly stroking his cock.

“Lou,” Harry whined.

“Hmm?”

Before Harry could say anything else, Louis attached his lips to the side of Harry’s neck – near the top, so it could at least be partially hidden by his hair – and sucked the skin into his mouth. Hard.

At the same time, he thumbed at the tip of Harry’s cock.

The joint sensations caused Harry to cry out. “Fuck!”

Louis smeared the precome down Harry’s dick and gripped him more tightly as he moved his hand up and down. He continued giving Harry the hickey, and when Harry started squirming, Louis wrapped his other arm around Harry’s waist and held him still.

Harry was letting out shaky breaths, still trying to move against Louis’ hold, but the only movements he could make were below the belt.

He started thrusting up into Louis’ fist at the same time that Louis moved down, and well, that didn’t work for Louis.

He pulled his lips from Harry’s neck to examine his work, and saw that Harry would have a nice mark soon.

Then he dropped to his knees, pulling his hand out of Harry’s briefs, and yanking them and his jeans down instead. He wrapped his lips around Harry’s cock and almost immediately starting bobbing his head back and forth.

“Shit, baby,” Harry moaned. He rested his elbows on the dresser behind him and dropped his head back, feeling the warm pressure from Louis’ mouth.

Louis moved one hand up to Harry’s balls and gently rolled them between his fingers. The other hand moved to the base of Harry’s cock, holding it still as Louis pulled off.

He licked up the underside of it and teased the tip with his tongue for just a moment before taking it back into his mouth. He moved his head down so that it met his hand and then moved both his fist and his face back and forth, perfectly in sync with each other.

Harry covered his face with his hands. “Oh, my God, babe,” he groaned, his voice slightly muffled.

Louis hummed, sending vibrations down Harry’s cock.

Harry moaned again, and started to get squirmy again. Louis took his hand off Harry’s balls and moved it to Harry’s hips, giving them a pinch.

The sudden feeling caused Harry to thrust forward, sending his dick further down Louis’ throat than it had been. Louis just hollowed his cheeks around it, almost like he had been anticipating it, like he had wanted Harry to deep throat him.

The realization sent Harry over the edge. He pulled his hips back as far as he could, which may have only been about a centimeter, and started coming down Louis’ throat.

Louis held his head still and swallowed, taking every last drop Harry gave him.

When he was done, Harry looked down at Louis, watching as he slowly pulled his mouth from Harry’s cock, sucking on the tip before he was off completely.

“Fuck,” Harry said again as Louis tucked him back into his pants.

Louis kissed Harry, shoving his tongue immediately between his lips so Harry could get a taste.

“I, uh, have to get changed real fast,” Louis smirked when he pulled back.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what it is about hotel rooms, but we should come here more often.”

\---

After Louis got changed, the two of them finally went to Xander and Jake’s room. They were only forty minutes late.

“About time,” Xander said as he opened the door for them. “We were starting to think you ditched us.”

“Nah, never,” Louis said. He walked over to the counter, where there was already an open bottle of rum.

“Damn!” Xander yelled. “No wonder you two were so late.”

Louis turned around to see a blushing Harry covering up his neck with his hands, as if that did anything to hide the evidence.

“You do good work, Lou.”

“Thanks…”

“Oi! And you got mad at us!” Niall protested, pointing between him and Josh.

“Because you ditched us for the whole day!” Harry dropped one of his hands from his neck to literally point at his friend.

“We were there for dinner!”

“But you didn’t show for any of the outlets. At least we showed up for this!”

"Because we haven't seen each other in weeks! Fuck shopping!"

Louis rolled his eyes at Niall and Harry’s bickering before making his drink, a simple rum and coke.

When he turned around, the two of them were still fighting, and Jake was looking away from him, suddenly engaging in conversation with Xander.

Louis knew he would have to talk to Jake eventually, and the more he was around him, the more he thought it would have to be during this trip, potentially even tonight.

He wondered if he could start taking shots. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

\---

When they got down to the casino floor, Jake immediately went off in another direction, claiming he wanted to find a restroom. He pulled Xander along with him. Harry didn’t seem to think anything of it, but Louis did.

The rest of them walked through the casino, looking for an area that called out to them.

Liam gasped. “Blackjack.”

Zayn raised an eyebrow. “Really? You’re putting your money down on blackjack?”

Liam nodded and cracked his knuckles. “Sure am. I’ve been practicing. Now, I just have to find a table with a lower minimum bet.”

He pointed at the number on the sign, showing the boys that this specific table had a fifty-dollar minimum.

Louis winced. “Yeah, Payno. Maybe start with ten dollars a hand or something.”

Liam seemed to agree, as he went off in search of a cheaper table.

“I’ll keep him out of trouble,” Zayn said, following behind Liam.

“We’ll find you later,” Louis called out. He turned back to Harry, and expected to find Josh and Niall, as well.

“We lost them,” Harry said, seeing Louis’ confused eyes.

“Where’d they go?”

Harry pointed about thirty feet away, to a small restaurant that was curtained off from the main floor. From where he stood, Louis could see a series of flat screen televisions hanging over the bar, and playing on every screen, was this year’s Super Bowl.

“Damn,” Louis shook his head. “Sports.”

“Yup. So, looks like it’s just us.”

Louis smiled softly and held out his hand. Harry took it in his own and they walked off, still trying to find a game to play.

A few minutes later, they finally got to a good section of the casino.

“Ooh, I want to play this one,” Harry said excitedly.

Louis smiled when he saw what game it was that Harry was hurrying toward.

“How do I play?” Harry asked as he sat down at the Sex and the City [game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pj7ZjYpAu4). 

Louis looked at the screen and took a guess. “Well, it looks like this is one of those games where you pay fifty cents for each game. See how there are four squares here? Each square is a game. So, two dollars will get you four games. Basically, you spin, and you win money if you get certain groupings of pictures. And, if you get three bonuses, then you qualify for one of the bonus rounds.”

“What bonus rounds?”

“Up there.”

Louis pointed to the larger screen on top of the game screen that Harry was looking at. It had each woman from Sex and the City, plus Mr. Big, next to a money amount. Every few seconds, each amount would change.

“So if I get Carrie, I could win over two hundred bucks?” Harry asked, looking at the dollar amounts increase.

“Possibly. You probably have to spin to see which bonus round you qualify for.”

“Well what am I waiting for? Let’s play.”

Harry stuck his gold card, which he had gotten from Guest Services before they started shopping, in the slot and then put in a twenty-dollar bill. Once his money was accepted, he hit the button for Max Bet. Two dollars were deducted from his total, and every column in each game started spinning.

After a few seconds, the games stopped moving, and a little ‘Game Over’ flashed at the bottom of the screen.

“What happened?” Harry asked confusedly.

“You lost, baby.”

“Oh. OK.”

Harry hit the ‘Repeat Bet’ button and they waited to see what would happen.

“Ooh, Louis, look at all of the bonuses!”

There were two in each of the first two games, and one in the fourth game. The last column in the fourth one started spinning really quickly, and the volume of the music increased, too. And then, suddenly…

‘Game Over’ flashed at the bottom of the screen again.

“Why didn’t I win?” Harry pouted. “I got more than three bonuses.”

“You probably have to get three bonuses in a single game.”

“Oh. Well that’s stupid.”

“Sorry, babe. Try again.”

Harry shrugged. “OK.”

He played a few more games and won back a few dollars. Just as Louis was about to suggest another game, like Wheel of Fortune, Harry got three bonuses in one game.

“Lou, I did it! Look!”

The three hearts quickly grew and Harry was instructed to press the screen so that the bonus wheel could spin. Once he did, he looked up at the top screen to see which bonus he would land on. A wheel was spun, and after a moment, it landed on the Miranda bonus, which was currently worth twenty-seven dollars.

“Ooh, I could win my money back,” Harry realized.

He had the choice of picking from three different clutch bags. He picked the middle one first, and the purse opened to reveal a thousand credits, or ten dollars.

“OK, good. Good. Not bad.” He chose the third clutch next, and there was Miranda’s face smiling back at them.

“Did I win?”

Harry looked at the screen in front of him and it said ‘Big Win’ across it.

His jaw dropped. “I won!”

He and Louis watched as the thirty-seven dollars he just won was added to the money he still had left.

“Forty-eight bucks,” Harry read. “OK. I’m done.”

He hit the cash-out button and took the voucher that printed from the machine.

“Good job, babe,” Louis praised.

“Thanks. Want to go find something else?”

Louis nodded and took Harry’s hand back in his own. They walked around for a little while more, playing on a few random slot machines, although, none of them were as fun as the Sex and the City one.

Eventually, they found themselves back by the game tables.

“Oh, look. There’s Liam,” Louis said.

He pointed to one of the blackjack tables and saw him sitting there. Zayn was standing behind him, along with a bunch of other people the boys didn’t know.

They made their way over and asked Zayn what was going on.

“Liam’s up more than four hundred bucks; that’s what’s going on,” he answered.

“Four hundred?” Harry asked in shock. “What did he start with?”

“Forty. But he’s been on a hot streak. He’s only betting twenty bucks a hand.”

“Hit me,” Liam told the dealer.

The boys looked to see what Liam had in front of him. He currently had a King and a three on the table.

The dealer grabbed a new card and added it to his pile. It was a seven.

“Stand,” Liam said.

The dealer went on to the two people next to Liam before revealing her own cards. She had nineteen, so the round was over. She gave Liam his money before taking the cards from the table and handing out new ones.

First, Liam got an Ace, which was usually a good sign. The dealer went through the rest of the people at the table, then handed out the second card.

Liam got a Queen.

“Blackjack,” the dealer announced.

Liam grinned and was given thirty dollars in chips.

“Holy shit,” Louis said. He clapped Liam on the shoulder. “Keep going, Li.”

“Don’t touch me, Lou,” Liam said, just a bit frantically.

“OK. OK.” Louis pulled his hand back quickly. “My bad.”

They waited for the hand to be over, and Liam got new cards. First he was dealt a six. Harry heard him let out a deep sigh and duck his head a bit.

“What’s wrong with a six?” Harry whispered to Louis.

“Not sure,” Louis answered. “I think because it would really suck if he got like, an eight or a-”

Liam got a nine as his second card.

“-Nine,” Louis finished.

Liam glared at Louis over his shoulder, and Louis looked up toward the ceiling and behind him – basically in any direction so he could avoid his soon-to-be roommate’s gaze.

Liam examined the hands of the other people at the table. One of them had twenty, while the other two had seventeens.

They were relatively safe, but now Liam had to decide what to do. If he got another card, it was very likely he would get more than 21, meaning he would Bust, and would lose his money. He could stand, and not get another card, but if the dealer got a seventeen or higher, then Liam would lose.

It was a very difficult choice.

The person to Liam’s right chose to stand, and then it was Liam’s turn.

With a deep breath, he said, “Stand.”

The dealer nodded and moved on.

The other people stood, as well, and then the dealer revealed her cards. She had sixteen, meaning she had to hit.

Liam crossed his fingers for a six or higher, and shut one eye as she flipped over another card and showed an eight.

He let out the breath he’d been holding in. If he had gotten another card, he would’ve gotten that eight, and would’ve lost. But because he said ‘no,’ he won.

“That puts him past five hundred,” Zayn whispered excitedly to Louis and Harry.

Liam dragged his hands down his face, his nerves fully showing through.

Before she started the next hand, the dealer announced that it was time to switch, and another person would be coming in.

“You’re out?” Liam asked for confirmation.

“Yes, sir.”

“Cash me out, then.”

“You’re walking away?” Louis asked in surprise. “You’re up by five hundred!”

“Yeah, I’m done,” Liam answered. “It’s bad luck to stay on when the dealer changes.”

He pushed all of his chips toward the dealer, and she gave him back five hundred-dollar chips and a ten-dollar one.

The other people agreed, and cashed out, as well.

“Two rounds of drinks on me, boys,” Liam said as he led them toward the cashier.

“Now that’s a decision I can get behind,” Louis said.

\---

“Happy birthday, Harry!”

The eight of them rose their glasses in a birthday toast, and quickly took the shot that Liam had bought all of them.

They were in Dusk, the nightclub in Caesars, having all finally found each other. Harry had suggested a shot to start off with, and since he was the birthday boy, they couldn’t refuse.

The boys all picked up the drinks that Liam had also bought for them and stepped away from the bar, headed for the dance floor.

It was packed out there, so they all had to spread out a bit.

Louis wrapped an arm around Harry’s neck, pulling the two of them close together.

“Are you having a good birthday?” Louis spoke loudly into his boyfriend’s ear.

“The best!” Harry told him before taking a sip from his glass. “I love you for making this happen.”

“I love you for being born on this day twenty-one years ago!”

Harry laughed and leaned down for a soft, slow kiss.

When they broke apart, Louis immediately turned and backed up into Harry, lining his ass up with Harry’s crotch. He leaned back, resting his body against Harry’s, and let himself sway to the music, guiding Harry along to it, as well.

The drinks were flowing, the bass was thumping and he and Harry were grinding, but after a while, Louis felt like he wasn’t having fun any more.

It probably had to do with the fact that he kept thinking there were eyes on him while he danced.

A few times, he looked up to see Jake either looking at him or hurriedly looking away from him, and the drunker he got, the more it annoyed him.

Eventually, it got to be too much for Louis.

When Harry told him he was going to the bathroom, Louis made his move.

“Can we talk?” Louis asked Jake over the loud volume of the music.

Jake nodded nervously and Louis led them out.

They went up the stairs toward the casino, and Louis started walking away from the club. They moved into the space that connected Caesars with Bally’s, the casino next door. It was a large, carpeted room, and if they continued walking and went down the flight of stairs at the other side of the room, they would be in Bally’s.

People only walked by every now and then. It was probably the most private space they would find without going up to one of their rooms.

“OK. What’s going on?” Jake asked.

Louis took a deep breath. “Um, I don’t know how to say this, but… Jake, do you still have feelings for me?”

If Louis hadn’t been watching Jake so closely, he would’ve missed the way his shoulders immediately tensed before gradually relaxing.

Jake let out an awkward laugh. “Of course not. Why would you think that?”

“Well, at your birthday party, I overheard you talking to Johnny and Liv in your room.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed, and he looked to the side, like he was trying to remember what they had been talking about four months ago.

“Somebody mentioned that you don’t know how you look at him,” Louis continued. “And at first, I didn’t know who you were talking about, but then I realized that it was me.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Um, and then I talked to Liv on New Year’s, and she told me that you still have a crush on me, and that she would kill me if I hurt you.”

Jake snorted. “Sounds like Liv.”

Louis couldn’t resist a smile then, either. “Yeah, it kind of does.”

Jake sighed. “I mean, it sounds like you already know everything, so… I’m not sure what else you want from me.”

“Jake,” Louis spoke softly, “you know I’m still with Harry, right?”

Jake scoffed. “Of course I know you’re with Harry; I’m not an idiot. Harry’s only my roommate, and he only talks about you every day. If I didn’t already know you two were together, the last twelve hours I’ve been with you guys would tell me everything I need to know.”

“Jake…”

“What, Louis? God, this is embarrassing enough without having to hear you talk to me like I don’t understand the situation. I get it: you’re in love with my roommate, and you’ll never be in love with me. I understand that, and yeah, it sucks. But you know what sucks even more? The fact that my roommate is also one of my best friends, as well as the guy you hooked up with behind my back.”

Louis sat perfectly still, not knowing if he should say anything to Jake or just let him get everything off his chest.

“God…” Jake took a deep breath. “I’m not even mad at you; technically, I can’t be. I mean, we said we could see other people, and you fucking chose my roommate. I was just the loser who busted you, in my own room, with my fucking roommate. And a month later, I was the idiot who agreed to stay roommates with him, knowing that you would always be around because the two of you were officially dating. And now here I am, more than a year later, still thinking about what it would be like to be with you.”

“Jake, you’re not a loser.”

“Of course I am. I must be either a loser or a masochist, because I put myself in this situation. I still like you, Louis, but I’m still friends with both you and Harry, which could be one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made because I still have to watch you two be in a perfect, lovey-dovey relationship.”

“Our relationship is not perfect,” Louis tried to tell him. “We fight plenty of times and went through a really rough patch a few months ago. You know that.”

“Of course I do. I heard all about it. But it doesn’t change the fact that no matter how often you and Harry fought, he always talked about you like you hung the sun and the moon, like you were God’s personal gift just to him. It didn’t help that I already knew how amazing of a person you were, but now I had to hear from Harry that even though the two of you were mad at each other and fighting over stupid shit, you were still the only person he wanted to be with. And it just makes me wonder what would’ve happened if I met you first, and not Harry.”

Louis awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck before attempting to say something to fix the situation, but he was truly at a loss for words.

“Jake, I’m sorry,” he started out slowly. “I really am. Just, tell me how to make this better.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “You can’t make this better. This is something that I have to deal with. I’m not too proud to admit how pathetic I am: still crushing on my roommate’s boyfriend after more than a year. And the fact that I still live with Harry is definitely not helping, either. As long as he’s my roommate, I might always like you, even if it fades over time. So no, you can’t fix this. If you really want to help me, you’ll leave me alone whenever possible.”

After a moment of silence, Jake asked, “I assume Harry knows about this?”

“No,” Louis shook his head. “I haven’t told him.”

“Why not?”

“Wanted to make sure it was true. I had to hear it for myself before starting drama.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You know what I mean,” Louis said. “I didn’t want to get Harry all worked up if nothing was actually happening.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

“Do you think I should?”

As an answer, Jake said, “I don’t want him to hate me.”

“He could never hate you. You’re one of his best friends.”

“And I like his boyfriend. He could absolutely hate me.”

Louis nodded. “Well, it’s his birthday, so I wasn’t planning on telling him this weekend, anyway. But, as of right now, I don’t think this is something he needs to know.”

Jake looked up at Louis in surprise.

“I’m going to bed,” Louis stated before anything else could be said. “Maybe I’ll see you in the morning.”

“OK.”

Louis stood up and walked away, feeling suddenly drained from that conversation. He texted Harry, saying to meet him outside of the entrance to the club. He didn’t have the energy to return to the dance floor.

All he wanted to do now was cuddle up to Harry… and possibly have sex.

But definitely cuddles first.

\---

Harry felt himself being shaken awake.

“Haz, get up,” Louis whispered in his ear. “Babe, come on.”

Harry groaned and rolled over, seeing Louis standing next to the bed, fully dressed.

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled.

“Nothing’s wrong. Come on; get up.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Louis pulled the blankets back and Harry hissed. “It’s freezing out there! What are you doing?”

“You have to get dressed,” Louis told him.

“Why? It’s like, the ass crack of dawn. The sun’s not even up.”

“I know. Come on, you’ll like this. I promise.”

Harry sighed and sat up, rubbing at his eyes. “I better. Otherwise, no birthday sex for you.”

“That’s in ten months, babe. Really?”

Harry stood up and stretched. “I know. I won’t forget.”

He dressed as quickly as he could while still half-asleep. After brushing his teeth and pulling on his sneakers, he decided he was ready.

Louis grabbed their coats and their key, and pulled Harry from the room.

They were quiet as they got in the elevator, and Harry started protesting again as Louis pulled them outside.

“This is ridiculous,” he grumbled as he put his coat on. “Where are we going?”

Louis grinned. “You’ll see.” He took Harry’s hand in his own and pulled him onto the boardwalk.

They walked for a few blocks before finding an opening to the beach.

“We’re going to the beach?” Harry smiled.

“Yeah. You wanted to come out here last night. Do you remember saying that?”

Harry winced. “Sort of. I had a lot of alcohol last night.”

“Yeah, well so did I. And I remember perfectly well.”

Louis sat down and Harry went with him. He cuddled up to Louis, feeling cooler air coming off the ocean waves.

They weren’t the only ones on the beach, which was currently lit up by the light blue and orange sky, but they were probably the youngest.

“I figured that since it was sort of dangerous to bring a drunk man who just turned twenty-one out to the beach at night, we could come out here to see the sunrise.”

Harry looked up at Louis in appreciation. “You dragged yourself out of bed before seven in the morning just so I could come down here to see the sunrise?”

Louis nodded his head unsurely, like he didn’t know yet if Harry liked the surprise.

Harry leaned up and kissed Louis softly on the lips. “I love it. Thank you.”

“I love you,” Louis whispered.

“I love you, too.”

They kissed again and stared out to the horizon, catching the first glimpse of the sun as it slowly rose over the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must've re-written the Louis/Jake scene like twenty times, and I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it. But I think it's the most realistic thing possible for the situation. Sorry if you don't agree. Just be warned, that part of the plot is not done with yet. There's still more that has to come with the Harry/Louis/Jake triangle. Should be in a few chapters, though. 
> 
> If you want to see the Miranda challenge in action, you can check out this [video](https://youtu.be/zZ41Ys3bEdA?t=7m44s). Just don't listen to the woman speaking. She's really annoying.
> 
> Next chapter will be up Sunday night!


	21. Ch-ch-ch-changes

Louis woke up on Tuesday morning on the floor.

With a groan, he picked his head up and saw a dining table and chairs and a front door in front of him.

Then he remembered where he was: his new apartment. He looked on either side of him and saw that he was between the couch and the coffee table. He must’ve fallen asleep there after spending all day yesterday unloading the moving trucks and both his and Liam’s cars.

Louis tried to get up, but his body was stiff – likely from sleeping on the floor – and sore – from using all of the muscles in his body he wasn’t used to working.

Slowly, he put his hands on either side of his body and pushed himself up so he was on his knees. Then he put one hand on the couch and tried to get up to his feet.

That didn’t work.

His palm slipped off the cushion and he fell back to the floor with a grunt.

At the very least, it woke up Liam, who was sitting on the couch with his head leaned back against the wall behind it.

“Wuz goin’ on?” he said quickly, looking around with his eyes still half-opened.

Louis just moaned in response.

Liam let out a long yawn and looked down at Louis, who appeared to have given up in every sense of the phrase.

“Why are you on the floor?”

“Because it’s more comfortable than my mattress,” Louis deadpanned.

“Really?”

“No, Liam…” Louis shook his head as he pushed himself up to a sitting position. “I fell asleep down here, I guess. How’d you get lucky enough to at least stay on the couch?”

Liam shrugged. “You must’ve rolled off. Last I remember, you were lying here with your feet in my lap.”

“There’s no way I rolled off the couch and didn’t wake up.”

“That’s what it looks like, man.”

Liam stood and stretched, yawning again. “Thank God for all of our family members. I think everything is unpacked.”

Louis nodded and looked around. Now that he could properly see everything, he could fully appreciate everything their families had done yesterday.

Jay and Liam’s mom, Karen, had unpacked and organized the kitchen and living room. Louis’ sisters had made Louis’ bed and put his clothes away – they’d refused to go near his underwear, though – and Liam’s sisters had done the same for him. Dan and Geoff, Liam’s dad, had helped Louis and Liam move all of the boxes and big furniture, including the mattresses and bed frames, into the apartment and put them where they needed to go. With a moving crew of twelve people, the place had come together by eight o’clock last night.

After that, everyone went home, leaving Louis and Liam in their brand new apartment. Naturally, they ordered pizza and promptly fell asleep in the living room.

Louis looked to the side and saw the box for the aforementioned pizza. He popped the lid up and saw that it was empty.

“Damn,” he muttered to himself.

“We were hungry,” Liam said in defense of them eating the entire thing. He walked away from Louis and down to the hallway. Louis heard the bathroom door close.

He reached into the pocket of his jeans and found his cell phone. “Shit. Six percent left.”

Louis finally got himself off the floor and went down to his room to find his charger. Luckily, one of his sisters had had the sense to just leave it on top of his dresser. He plugged it in to the outlet next to the closet, hooked up his phone and dropped it down to the dresser when it started charging.

With another yawn, he flopped down on the bed and immediately starting dozing off.

“Hey, Louis,” Liam said, walking into the room and effectively waking Louis up.

“Yeah?”

“When are you going to show me around? We have to go grocery shopping. We have like, the bare minimum here.”

“Can we go later?”

“Thank God. Yes. I’ll be in my room.”

“When are Harry and Dani coming?” Louis called after him.

“Six,” Liam answered. His bedroom door shut a second later.

Louis pulled back the blanket and slid under it, too tired to bother changing out of his sweaty clothes from the day before.

He was asleep within minutes.

\---

“So how’s the replacement search coming?” Harry asked.

He and Dani were in her car headed for Louis and Liam’s apartment. They were going to have dinner with their boyfriends as a way to celebrate the new place.

Harry hoped Louis had unpacked. It was too easy to picture his room having nothing in it but the mattress and dresser, his clothing still stored in boxes.

“It sucks,” Dani answered. “El and I have been trying to figure out who we want to take over next year, but it’s hard. We only have five options, so that’s limiting enough. But then we have to figure out who to put in each position _plus_ who will work well together. You can’t have just anybody as Executive and Managing. They have to really fit.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said sincerely.

“Not your fault. It’s just annoying. But how’s your search coming? Do you have someone?”

“I might. I’m going to see how they do over the next couple of weeks, but it looks pretty good for them.”

“At least one of us is having luck!”

The GPS on Dani’s phone told them to take the exit off I-295. She did, and listened carefully to the next steps.

“Have you been here before?” Dani wondered once the phone told her to continue driving.

“Once or twice; it’s a good size for them. They’re on the second floor, so they won’t have to worry about having noisy neighbors above them. Like, you walk into the main room, which is the combination dining and living room. When you go down the hallway, the kitchen is on the right. It has a little half-wall kind of thing that looks out into the main room. So you’re not closed off from it at all. And connected to the kitchen is a little room with the washer and dryer in it. If you walk further down the hall, on the left is the first bedroom. Right across from that is the first bathroom. At the end of the hall is the second bedroom with the connected bathroom, which is the one Louis has. But Liam’s bedroom isn’t that much smaller than Louis’, to be honest.”

“Oh, that’s cool. And at least the other bathroom is right across from Liam’s room.”

“I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with it so far; but, knowing their moms, the place is probably all sorted out already.”

“ _But_ , knowing them, they’ve probably rearranged everything and now the place is a disaster.”

Harry chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true.”

A few minutes later, they pulled into the apartment complex and Harry told her what building it was. They pulled into a parking spot a few rows back and got out.

“It’s not that far from campus,” Harry said. “That wasn’t even a half hour.”

“I know. Not bad.”

Harry led them to the stairs on the right side of the tan brick building. They went up to the second floor and knocked on 207.

“Come in!” Louis yelled from inside.

Harry opened the door, let Dani walk in first and shut the door behind them. He turned to see right into the kitchen, where Louis was pouring spaghetti sauce into the large pot that sat on the stovetop. Liam was next to him, pouring wine into glasses.

“Hey, guys,” Louis said with a wave. “We have spaghetti and garlic bread for you. It’s almost re-”

“Louis!” Liam shouted. He jumped back as the glass jar slipped from Louis’ hands and shattered on the ground.

Dani clapped a hand over her mouth while Harry just sighed and shook his head.

Liam and Louis looked down at the red sauce that was now splattered all over the floor and bottom part of the cabinets, refrigerator and oven.

“All right, Lou; don’t move,” Liam warned. “We just need to get the broom.”

“OK… Where’s the broom?”

Liam looked up in disbelief. “Seriously? It’s in the storage room. Behind you.”

“Oh, right!”

Louis turned around and opened the plain, wooden door that was next to the fridge. He pulled it open and flicked on the light inside, returning a moment later with a broom and dustpan.

“Should we clean up the sauce first?” Louis wondered. “I don’t want to get the broom all dirty.”

“I guess? I don’t want to spread the glass around, though. It’s all mixed in with the sauce.”

“Yeah, that’s a good point. Um… So what should we do?”

They looked over to Dani and Harry for help.

“Don’t ask me,” Dani said.

Harry sighed again and asked, “Do you have a cardboard box anywhere? From unpacking or… Wait. Let me have that.”

He pointed to the empty pizza box that was stuffed behind the trashcan.

Louis carefully made his way over to it, trying to avoid stepping on any small bits of glass he might not be able to see.

He grabbed the box and handed it over to Harry, who then ripped the box into two pieces. He pulled the small, foldable flaps off the top piece until he was left with just a single large, cardboard square.

“OK, so use this top part to push all of the sauce and glass into the bottom piece,” he instructed. “It’ll be strong enough to hold all of the sauce, and you can get a lot of the glass, too.”

“How do you know this?” Louis asked. He leaned the broom against the wall and took the pieces from Harry.

Harry shrugged. “Read about it in one of my mom’s magazines once.”

“Your _mom’s_ magazines?”

Harry pursed his lips and fixed Louis with an annoyed stare. “Just clean up your mess, Louis.”

Louis smiled and did just that. Liam held the bottom half of the box and Louis pushed as much sauce and glass as he could into it using the top piece. When most of it had been cleaned up, Liam folded up the box and dumped it all in the trashcan.

“Not bad, Harry,” Dani commented as Louis started sweeping up remaining pieces of glass and Liam grabbed a container of sanitary wipes from under the sink to wipe the sauce off the cabinets.

“Thanks. Do you guys have more sauce for the spaghetti?”

“Yeah,” Liam answered from the floor. “Thankfully. Otherwise we’d be eating grilled cheese tonight.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with grilled cheese,” Louis said.

“I guess.”

A few minutes later, Liam threw the wipes away and washed his hands. After he dried them off on a dishtowel, he got a new bottle of sauce out of the cabinet in front of him and poured it into the pot. He mixed it all up and said, “It’ll be a little closer to room temperature by now, but it’ll still be good.”

Louis emptied the dustpan into the trash and washed his hands, as well. Then he grabbed four plates out of the cabinet behind him.

“So,” he started to say as he loaded up their plates, “in the past twenty-four hours, I’ve moved into the apartment, fallen asleep on the floor, let my phone almost die, spilled spaghetti sauce everywhere, forgotten where the broom was and cleaned up with a pizza box. Is this what adulthood looks like?”

“I think so,” Liam told him.

Louis shrugged. “I could get used to that. Now let’s eat.” 

\---

On Monday night, Louis was lounging on the couch with Liam. The two of them were flicking through channels on the television, trying to find something to watch, when Louis’ phone started to ring.

He saw that it was Lottie calling, so he immediately picked up. Before he could say anything, however, he was met with a lot of screaming.

“Hello?” Louis asked. Liam looked over at him, a combination of fear and curiosity on his face.

“Louis, mom’s in labor,” Lottie said simply, their mother yelling in the background. “We’re going to Kennedy Hospital.”

“Holy shit! OK. I’m leaving right now.”

“OK. Meet you there.”

He hung up the phone and stared at Liam in surprise.

“What’s wrong?” Liam wanted to know.

“My mom’s having the babies. I have to go!”

Louis jumped up and ran down the hallway to his room. He could hear Liam babbling on about something as he dug his sneakers out of the closet and pulled them on. He threw a jacket on over his T-shirt and was thankful that the sweatpants he was wearing were clean.

He slid his wallet into his pocket and grabbed his keys before hurrying back to the living room.

“Good luck, Louis!” Liam wished. “I think that’s appropriate to say.”

“Yeah, that’s good,” Louis replied as he put on his coat. “I’ll text you in the morning to let you know what’s going on.”

“Sounds good. Drive safe.”

“Thanks!”

Louis double-checked that he had the necessities – phone, keys and wallet – before running out the front door, eager to meet his new brother and sister.

\---

That same night, Harry sat in his room reading through his notes for Communication Theory for his test the next day.

Just as Harry realized that he was reading the same sentence for the fourth time, his phone started to ring.

He happily answered it, thankful for the distraction.

“Hey, babe,” he greeted.

“Harry. Oh, my God.”

“Lou? What’s the matter? Where are you?”

“I’m at the hospital,” Louis answered. “It’s fine.”

“It’s definitely not fine! Why are you at the hospital?”

“My mom’s in labor. The babies are coming.”

“You idiot! You should’ve started with that!”

“Sorry, babe. I’m not really thinking too clearly at the moment.”

Harry understood why. “Well what’s going on? How’s your mom? Where are your sisters?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“Because I’m still in the parking lot outside. I haven’t gone in yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m scared, Haz!” Louis whined.

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. I mean, what if something goes wrong?”

“Nothing’s going to go wrong,” Harry assured. “Your mom is one of the strongest people I know. She’ll give those doctors and nurses hell if they even think about messing up.”

“Oh, my God!” Louis gasped loudly.

“What? What?”

“What if the ultrasounds were wrong? What if it really is two girls?”

Harry stared blankly ahead. “Are you serious?”

“What? It happens!”

“Get out of the fucking car, Louis! Your mom needs you right now.”

“OK! OK. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

They hung up the phone and Harry had to shake his head at Louis’ still-present ‘fear’ of having two more sisters. However, he was excited to meet Louis’ newest siblings.

Harry checked the time and saw that it was already after nine. He wondered how long Louis and his sisters would be allowed to wait at the hospital for the babies to arrive.

For Louis’ sake, Harry hoped it would be all night.

\---

For the second time in a week, Louis woke up in an uncomfortable position. The room he was in was dark, but there was a serious crick in Louis’ neck.

He slowly opened his eyes and was met with a very familiar sight: his family’s living room.

After arriving at the hospital last night, he and his sisters had sat around the waiting room for nearly three hours before Dan came out and said that since it was going to be a while, they should just go back to the house.

So, Louis drove them all home and, since his old room had already been converted into a nursery for the babies, he had to sleep on the couch.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he turned over onto his back. He’d forgotten how uncomfortable the sofa could be to sleep on.

“Language.”

Louis looked toward the stairs, where the voice had come from, and saw Phoebe sitting on the bottom step.

“Thanks, Phoebe,” Louis said.

She shrugged. “Just saying. Hey, you need to call us out of school, you know.”

“What time is it?”

“Almost seven. Technically, we’re all kind of sleeping in.”

Louis nodded. “All right.”

“And then, we need to figure out breakfast. Daisy and I want to go to IHOP.”

“What? Why does me being here equal going out to breakfast?”

“Because you’re our brother and you don’t live with us any more and we miss you.”

Well now Louis felt bad.

“You know you’ve mastered the whole manipulation thing, right?” he asked her seriously.

She just smiled in response.

\---

“This was a good idea, Phoebe,” Lottie said with a mouth full of pancakes.

“I know,” Phoebe replied. “Thank you, though.”

Nearly an hour later, the five Tomlinson siblings were sitting in an IHOP booth with more pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon, sausage and juice than Louis was used to lately.

After Louis had called the girls’ schools, he’d taken a quick shower and annoyed Lottie and Fizzy until they finally rolled out of bed.

Now they were stuffing their faces before going back to the hospital to await the birth of the baby twins.

“Is Dan going to call us to tell us to come back?” Fizzy wondered, looking at Louis, who just shrugged.

“Not sure. He said he would let me know if they were born and we weren’t there, but I haven’t heard anything yet, so I’m assuming we can just show up again.”

“Just text him when we get there,” Daisy told him.

“You realize that at some point today, there’s going to be seven of us instead of five?” Fizzy asked.

Louis shook his head slowly. “I can’t believe it. The four of you are annoying enough and now there’s going to be two more?”

Phoebe kicked him from where she sat across the table.

“Ow.”

“You’re fine.”

“You know,” he said, staring down his youngest (as of now) sister, “I don’t like how sassy you’ve become. You’re only ten.”

“Wonder where she inherited that from?” Lottie mumbled.

“Shut it.”

“You know, Lou,” Fizzy cut in, “you might want to be nice to us. Pretty soon, you might not be our favorite brother.”

Louis dropped his fork. “Oh, what? Just because you have a choice now, all of a sudden you don’t like me?”

“No, we like you,” Daisy assured him.

“You just might not be the favorite,” Fizzy repeated.

“You’re going to have a _baby_ brother. I’m an _older_ brother. I can drive you places and give you advice and-” he paused to point to the table, “-buy you breakfast.”

“Yeah, but we’re going to have a cute, little brother who likes snuggling and will wrap his little hand around our fingers,” Lottie shot back.

“I can do that, too!”

“Yeah, but that would be weird,” Fizzy whispered from her seat next to him.

“Remind me why I called you guys out of school and brought you here?” Louis wanted to know.

“Because you love us,” Lottie answered simply.

“And your life would be boring without us,” Phoebe finished.

Louis rolled his eyes. “Yeah, my pride would be a lot less wounded without you, too.”

“Just eat your pancakes, Lou,” Fizzy said. “Come on. We have a new favorite brother to go meet.”

\---

After a quick stop back at the house to get magazines, cards, phone chargers and headphones to keep them occupied, the Tomlinsons arrived back at the hospital.

They all crowded into Jay’s room even though there were technically too many of them and talked to their mom as if she wasn’t trying to push out two babies.

“How you feel, Mom?” Louis asked for the third time in the last half hour.

“Louis, even though I’ve had a lot of drugs and I can’t feel it, I know my body is in a lot of pain, and if you ask me that question one more time, I’ll make sure you hurt more than I do.”

She said the entire sentence with a smile, as if she was making sure that Louis understood the threat.

“Love you,” he said happily.

She grunted in acknowledgement, but otherwise ignored her son.

They both looked quickly toward the floor when Phoebe groaned loudly. She, Fizzy and Daisy were currently playing Uno, and Fizzy had just thrown down a ‘Draw Four.’

She mumbled under her breath as she picked up four new cards and added them to her pile.

“You know,” she started to say as she rearranged her deck, “throwing down a ‘Draw Four’ is one of the worst ways to destroy a family.”

“Unless you keep adding cards and end up making someone draw like, sixteen,” Daisy said.

Fizzy shook her head. “Nah. Playing a single game of Monopoly has got to be worse.”

“Being in this room right now is the worst,” Jay muttered from the bed.

“Mom, I’m going to ignore that.”

“Ignore whatever you want,” she whined. “God, this is the worst! This is my fifth pregnancy; why is this taking so long?”

As she spoke, her volume got even louder; so loud that even Lottie, who had been sitting in front of the window with her headphones in, looked up.

“The doctor should be around soon to check you,” Dan said, trying to help.

“Thank God.”

Suddenly, she took in a quick breath. “Oh, boy.”

She reached out her hand, which Dan took immediately. She groaned as she felt a contraction. She squeezed her eyes shut and her face turned red as she tried to breathe through it and ignore the dull pain she still felt.

Louis and his sisters waited patiently until their mother returned to normal, in whichever way that meant for a woman in labor with twins.

“God,” Jay said when the contraction seemed to have ended. She dropped Dan’s hand and told him, “This is all your fault.”

“What?”

“It’s your fault that I’m here!” she yelled. She dropped her head back to her pillow and took a deep breath. Then she said, “I’m sorry. I’m just so tired.”

“It’s OK, babe,” he assured her. “You’re allowed to be mad at me. Just remember, though, pretty soon we’re going to have two adorable babies to love and spoil.”

She nodded her head, tears starting to form in her eyes. Seconds later, she huffed and said, “I just wish they would hurry up!”

They were interrupted when Jay’s doctor came in and said that he needed to do an examination and that the children needed to leave.

They left and returned to the waiting room.

Dan came out a short while later to tell them that it was nearly time for Jay to start pushing; meaning, they might not have much longer to wait.

“So, I have to go put on my scrubs and things, and I’ll come out when we’re all finished,” he said.

“Good luck,” Lottie told him, giving him a hug. Fizzy, Phoebe and Daisy quickly joined in.

Dan looked at Louis over the top of Lottie’s head, waiting to see what he would do.

Louis smiled, and said, “You’re going to be an amazing dad,” before joining in the group hug, too.

They stood there for a moment, valuing their last seconds before everything about their lives changed for the better.

Finally, Dan stood back and took a deep breath. “OK. I’m going in.”

“Good luck,” Louis wished again. They watched him walk away and realized that this was the last time they would see Dan as a childless man.

“Let’s get comfortable,” Louis told his sisters.

They did just that, sitting back in their seats and making small talk with the other families that were also gathered there.

Louis spent some time talking to a man who was waiting for his sister to give birth to her triplets, something Louis couldn’t wrap his head around. If he thought twins were a lot of work, he didn’t want to know what it would be like to add one more to the mix.

Phoebe and Daisy fell asleep in their chairs after the first hour, and Lottie put her headphones back in soon after.

Louis and Fizzy were on the floor playing a game of ‘Go Fish’ when Dan finally came back out, more than two hours after he’d first gone in.

“Have any twos?” Louis asked.

“Go fish.”

Louis picked up a card from the pile and added it to his deck.

Fizzy looked through her own cards, but before she could say a word, Dan came running out.

“They’re here! It’s a boy! And a girl!”

Louis and Fizzy dropped their cards and rushed over to congratulate their future stepfather. Lottie was right behind them, after stuffing her phone into her pocket.

“They’re beautiful and small and cute and just… perfect,” he described. “Come on; let’s go see them.”

After waking up the twins and gathering up their belongings, the siblings followed Dan away from the waiting room.

“So, they were born early, so the doctor sent them to the intensive care unit right after all of the mandatory tests they had to have done,” Dan told them.

“Is everything OK?” Lottie wanted to know.

“Yup. Mostly healthy for being born seven weeks early. Doctor has to keep them there for a while, though. Just until their lungs get stronger and we build up their immune systems a bit more.”

Dan led them down a few hallways, following the signs that pointed toward the NICU, where the babies were.

“You guys can’t go in yet; only we can. But you can look through the window.”

They reached the NICU, and the wall they stood in front of had all glass windows on the top half, allowing them to look right in.

A nurse saw them and waved before standing up from her seat next to the twins. The babies were in glass cases, with a few holes cut out for Jay and Dan to put their arms through when they came to visit, and hooked up to a bunch of tubes, some of which were connected to an IV.

The nurse brought over the girl first and went back for the boy.

“They’re so little,” Daisy noticed.

“Yeah. They were both less than four pounds,” Dan told them.

“When can they come home?” Fizzy asked.

“Not sure. We’re just observing them now and seeing how they do tonight. The doctor said they’ll have a better answer tomorrow.”

“Well for now,” Louis said, “we can just appreciate how cute they are.”

Which was true. The boy was bald, while the girl had a light layer of red hair covering her head. They both had their hands curled up into tiny fists and wore diapers that looked like the ones Daisy and Phoebe put on their baby dolls at home.

“Can we know their names now?” Lottie wondered.

“Oh! Right. Meet Doris and Ernest, your new baby siblings.”

Phoebe gasped excitedly. “Aww, we can call him Ernie!”

“I like those names,” Louis said honestly.

“I can’t wait to hold them,” Fizzy spoke quietly.

Dan just smiled.

They all stood there quietly, admiring the new additions to the family.

Finally, Louis clapped a hand on Dan’s shoulder. “You did good.”

Dan’s smile grew even wider. “Yeah. Yeah, we did, didn’t we?”

\---

Two days later, Harry sat in his office, working on some last minute photos for the News section.

He heard a knock at his door and turned to see Cher waiting with a smile on her face.

“Thought you left,” he said before saving his work.

“I’m about to,” she replied. She took a seat in the chair next to his desk and said, “I wanted your opinion on something first.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you think it’s bad luck to have a first date on Valentine’s Day?”

He shook his head. “No. Why would it be?”

The holiday was in just two days, and Harry and Louis had had their plans sorted out for nearly a month already.

“I don’t know; like, is it some kind of omen to start a relationship on the ‘most romantic day of the year’ or some shit?”

Harry chuckled. “I think you should be good. What’s his name?”

“Craig. He’s in my publication design class. Super cute; loads of tattoos.”

“Sounds like my type of guy.”

Cher laughed. “Hey, hands off. You have your own boy.”

“I do. And we already have our plans figured out.”

“What are you guys doing?”

“Louis is actually coming up to my house," Harry told her. "My parents are going away and Gemma always goes out with her friends so we’ll have the place to ourselves.”

“Ooh, sounds nice.”

“‘Nice’ isn’t the word I would use, but yeah; it’s pretty great. Then, Liam can have the apartment for him and Dani if he wants it.”

“You’re so thoughtful,” Cher praised.

“It was Louis’ idea. So really, he’s the thoughtful one.”

Just then, Dani came up to the office door. “What’s going on in here? I heard my name.”

“Just talking about our plans for Valentine’s Day,” Harry said.

“Yeah, what are you and Liam doing?” Cher asked.

“I don’t know; I haven’t really thought about it yet,” Dani replied.

Harry and Cher exchanged a look.

“Um…” Harry started, “I mean, you have a present for him, though. Right?”

“No. Why would I? I have time. Today’s only the…”

She trailed off as she thought about the answer to her question. It was clear to see when she realized.

“Is today the twelfth?” she asked them.

Harry and Cher nodded.

“So, Valentine’s Day is in two days?”

They nodded again.  
  
“Fuck!” she yelled, stomping her foot. “Holy shit. I forgot about Valentine’s Day.”

“How did you forget?” Cher wondered.

“I’ve been busy! Distracted.”

“With replacement stuff?” Harry asked.

“Um, yeah… Yeah, that.”

Harry wanted to ask Dani what she actually meant, but she was already babbling.

“I’m the worst girlfriend in the world. I haven’t bought Liam anything yet and Valentine’s Day is in two days. He probably went all out and he’s probably got all these plans for us.”

“Did he ask you to come over to the apartment?” Harry asked.

“Yeah! I didn’t make the connection, though. Oh, my God! What am I going to get him?”

“What’s wrong with Dani?” Niall wondered as he joined the group.

“She forgot Valentine’s Day,” Cher answered quickly.

She let out a low, frustrated groan. Niall just started laughing.

“Oh, man. You’re screwed!”

“Shut up, Niall,” Harry and Dani said at the same time. Dani’s tone was slightly more aggressive than Harry’s, though.

“Oh, my God…” Dani muttered. “I need to go figure out what to buy him.”

She turned and hurried from the room.

“Glad I’m not in that position,” Niall told Harry and Cher.

“What are your plans?” Cher asked.

“We’re going ice skating and then getting dinner. Nothing too complicated.”

“That’s cute. Where’s there to go ice skating around here?”

“Philly. There’s a rink at Penn’s Landing.”

“Oh, yeah! I went there on a class trip once.”

“You went ice skating for a class trip?” Harry asked.

“Yeah. I was terrible, though,” Cher replied. “My friend and I went around once and then spent the rest of the time drinking hot chocolate and just walking around. I still had fun, though.”

“Admit it: you totally pushed your friend over before you got off the ice,” Niall said.

Cher shook her head. “I did no such thing. I wanted to, but I knew that if I did, I would’ve went down, too.”

“At least you thought through all of your options,” Harry said.

“Of course I did. It’s what makes me such a fantastic editor.”

She stood up and quickly stretched her arms behind her back.

“On that note, I’m leaving. Thanks for the chat, boys.”

She patted them both on the shoulder as she left the room.

“Night, Cher,” they told her in unison.

Once she was gone, Niall fixed Harry with a stare. “What’s with the face?”

“Nothing.”

Niall rolled his eyes and sat down in the chair that Cher had just vacated.

“OK. Spill.”

Harry just shrugged. “I don’t know. I just hope this weekend goes well. Last year’s Valentine’s Day didn’t exactly work out, you know?”

“Ahh. Got it.”

Niall remembered the day very well, when Harry and Louis had been caught cheating on Aiden and Jake.

“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong; I’m excited to spend the day with Louis, but the holiday’s been kind of tainted.”

“Don’t worry; everything will go well. I mean, for starters, there’s no chance of you getting caught in a dorm room hooking up with another guy, so…”

“Niall!”

“Too soon?”

Harry just let out a loud sigh.

“H, I’m just kidding,” Niall apologized. “You know I love you.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But in all seriousness, knowing Louis, you’ll have an amazing Valentine’s Day. He’s probably got a million romantic things up his sleeve.”

“That’s true.”

“I know it is. That’s why I said it.”

Before Harry could respond, Niall quickly stood up. “Now get to work. You still have photos to edit, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well get on it. Stop procrastinating.”

“ _You_ came into _my_ office!”

“That’s a lame excuse.”

Harry shook his head as Niall left his office. His friends were weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Update 5/4/16: The good news? I'm finally done with the thousand fic exchanges I was involved with over the past year, so all of my free time will be dedicated to finishing this fic. The bad news? I've completely lost touch with this story and even though I have the remaining ten chapters planned out, I just can't seem to get my thoughts in order.  
> **   
>  **More good news? I'm going to reread this entire story so I can get my focus back because I am DETERMINED to finish this story. It's been long enough, wouldn't you agree?  
> **   
>  **So please, bear with me while I get back on track. I PROMISE I will finish this story as soon as humanly possible. Thank you!**
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> **Update 5/19/16: If you are still following along with this story, the new chapter is complete! It will be posted Sunday night.**


	22. Unhappy Valentine's Day! (Friday and Saturday)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dramaaaaaaa! Are you ready? =)  
> OK, so this chapter is the first in a two-parter. It's Valentine's Day! The first section of this chapter takes place on Friday, the day before Valentine's Day, and the rest of the chapter takes place on the actual holiday. The next chapter will take place on Sunday, the day after. Both chapters will be broken up by couple.

Harry sighed as he looked over the paper in front of him again. At the top, it read, ‘Premium Housing Application,’ and Harry was trying to figure out if he should start filling it out.

As of now, Harry planned on possibly rooming with Jake again, but he was having trouble making a choice.

Since he would only have one semester to complete next year, he didn’t think it would be worth it to get on-campus housing. If he and Jake got a campus apartment together, they would have to find Jake a new roommate for the spring semester.

There was always the option of getting an off-campus apartment with Jake. A lot of complexes in the area offered shorter leases, knowing that college students would be renting them out and sometimes had to go semester-by-semester when it came to leasing. But once again, it would be up to Jake to find another roommate or different place to live when January came around.

Harry was also considering just living at home and commuting. In order to do that, however, Harry would have to try to get all of his classes on the same few days, as he wouldn’t want to make the hour-long drive, each way, all five days of the week. He would have an assistant next semester, so maybe he wouldn’t have to be at Monday meetings. He would have to check the course offerings to see if he could maybe take a Wednesday night class, and get the rest of his classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That way, he would only have to drive to campus three days out of the week. Knowing his luck, though, that wouldn’t be possible.

Harry dropped the paper in his hand and let out a groan. Sometimes having choices really got on his nerves.

He heard a knock on his open door and turned to see Niall standing there.

“You leaving soon?” he asked.

Harry nodded. “Yeah, Louis should be here in a few minutes.”

Louis was going to pick Harry up and then the two of them would be heading to Harry’s house for the weekend so they could be alone for Valentine’s Day. To say that Harry was excited would be an understatement. It would be their first Valentine’s Day as a couple, and after what happened last year, the holiday had been kind of marred for Harry.

He was hoping that this weekend would make ‘Valentine’s Day’ no longer synonymous with ‘disaster.’

“Weren’t you going down to Josh’s today?” Harry asked.

Niall sighed. “I was supposed to, yeah. But Josh got stuck working on some big exclusive at work, so I’m just going down tomorrow instead. That’s when our real plans are, anyway.”

“Still. You have to miss out on a day of alone time.”

“It’s cool. We’ll make up for it another weekend.” Just then he noticed the application on Harry’s desk. “What’s that?”

“Nothing, just… Trying to figure out housing for next year.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, if I want to get premium housing with Jake or live at home or get an off-campus apartment. I haven’t figured it out yet.”

Niall smirked. “Oh. Right. Um, yeah, I wouldn’t stress myself out too much about that if I were you.”

“Why not?”

“Just have a feeling you’ll figure it all out soon enough.”

“What?” Harry asked. “Was that supposed to be helpful?”

Niall just shrugged.

Before Harry could ask anything else, his phone started to vibrate. Harry picked it up to see a text from Louis.

 ** _Out front_** , was all it said.

“Well, I guess that’s Louis?” Niall wondered, backing slowly away. “Have a good weekend, man!”

“We’re not done talking about this!” Harry yelled after his roommate.

“No, I think we really are!”

Harry heard Niall’s bedroom door shut and he just shook his head as he grabbed his stuff. Why did he have such weird friends?

\---

The next night, Liam pulled his chicken parm out of the oven and set it down on top of the stove. He took off his oven mitts and placed them on the counter. Now their entire meal was ready; the garlic bread and salad were already finished, waiting in containers with tin foil on top.

Now he just had to wait for Dani to arrive.

He opened a bottle of wine and poured two glasses. He leaned back against the counter and watched the clock. He was about to start drinking from his own glass when he heard a knock at the door.

Liam left the kitchen and walked over to answer it. He opened it to find Dani waiting there with an apologetic look on her face.

“I’m so sorry I’m late!” she said, walking inside.

“It’s OK. Don’t worry. The food’s all ready, though, so you don’t have to wait for that.”

“Oh, good.” She pecked him on the lips and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day. Come on; let’s eat.”

The two of them went to the kitchen and Dani’s mouth dropped when she saw the food.

“Liam, this looks so good,” she praised.

“Thank you.”

He handed her a plate and they both loaded up the food that they would want. They each grabbed a glass of wine and headed for the table.

Liam started digging in as soon as he sat down.

Dani watched him in surprise; usually, Liam was more patient than that. “Hungry?”

He just nodded. His mouth was too full of food to offer a verbal answer.

Once he’d finished chewing, he took a sip of wine and looked over at Dani. He noticed the slight tension in her posture and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Dani shook her head. “Nothing. Why?”

“You just seem… I don’t know, distracted or something. Is everything OK?”

“Yeah,” she answered just a bit too enthusiastically. She cleared her throat and repeated, “Yeah.”

“Is everything OK with the paper?”

She nodded. “It’s going great; I just, really need to figure out who I want to replace me.”

“Ahh. Still having trouble deciding?”

“Yeah, it’s really difficult. I mean, everyone is so good where they are, you know? I don’t want to pull them away from their section so they can oversee the whole paper, but at the same time, I have to. I almost wish I could stay on another year just so I don’t have to pick a replacement.”

Liam laughed. “Trust me, once you get to spring break, you won’t be thinking that anymore.”

“Yeah, I guess not. God, I can’t believe I’m graduating in three months.”

“You can’t believe that, and I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I’ve _been_ graduated for almost a year.”

“Yeah, but you’re like, successful now.”

“Define ‘successful,’” Liam said.

“Um, having a fulltime job, having _several_ published articles, running a weekly blog-”

“Only temporarily.”

“But you’re still in charge of it. Be proud of yourself, Liam.”

“No, I am. And I’ll be just as proud of you when you get your first job. Have you started looking around yet?”

Dani hesitated. “Um, a little bit; yeah. It’s rough, you know? I mean, there are plenty of like, dance teaching positions for eight-year-olds or acting spots in community theater and things like that, but those aren't really my goals." 

“Understandable. But there are other theater roles you can audition for, though, right? Like, in New York or Philly or somewhere?”

“Yeah. Yeah, there are. There’s a lot of them, too. All over the world, even… I just have to audition for them, which is terrifying to even think about.”

“Dani, you don’t have to be nervous to audition. Everything you do is amazing.”

Dani blushed. “Thanks, Liam. It’s just a lot to worry about.”

Liam nodded. “I understand. And hey, maybe you need to think outside the box a little.”

“Oh?” Dani asked. If Liam didn’t know any better, he would’ve said she sounded a bit hopeful. “Outside of the box?”

“Yeah. Like, you could be like Perrie and go to grad school if you don’t find anything you really love. That might help.”

Dani sighed. “Yeah. That’s always an option. Just have to keep working for what I want."

“Definitely. And you’ll get there; I know you will.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He picked up his fork again, but before he took another bite, he asked, “And you’re sure everything is OK?”

“Yup,” Dani answered. “Positive.”

Liam wasn’t sure if he fully believed that.

\---

Louis and Harry were snuggled up on the couch in Harry’s living room.

“We really need to get a move on if we’re actually going to make dinner,” Louis said quietly.

Harry shook his head. “No. I’m comfortable.”

Louis chuckled. “Me, too, but I’m sort of starting to get hungry.”

“Fine. Five more minutes, then?”

“OK.”

Harry smiled and nuzzled his head against Louis’ chest before getting comfortable again.

“Can I tell you something?” Harry whispered a few minutes later.

Louis hummed.

“This is already a million times better than last year.”

Louis looked down at Harry, who was now watching him with a careful expression.

“Yeah?”

Harry nodded slowly.

“Well then, I guess next year will have to be even better.”

Harry beamed. “Yeah?”

“Definitely,” Louis said. He puckered his lips out for a kiss and Harry was too happy to move up and give him that.

“OK. Now we can get up.”

Louis sighed. “No. Five more minutes; I’m comfortable.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “You can’t use my own words against me. Come on.”

Louis groaned, but allowed himself to be pulled up to his feet.

They walked into the kitchen and Harry opened the fridge. He started pulling out the pizza dough and cheeses they would need to make their [four-cheese pepperoni pizza](http://bakerbynature.com/four-cheese-pepperoni-pizza/) tonight.

“Where’d you put the pepperoni?” Harry asked, not seeing the familiar red pack of Hormel anywhere.

Louis stilled, thinking back to the grocery bags he’d unpacked last night. His eyes widened with realization. “Shit.”

“You forgot to buy the pepperoni?”

“No!”

“So where is it, then?” Harry wondered.

“In the fridge! At my apartment.”

“You forgot to bring it?”

“Yeah… Can we go buy some?”

“It’s OK. We don’t really need the pepperoni.”

“Excuse me?” Louis gasped. “It’s like you don’t know me at all!”

“Seriously?”

“Yes! Get your shoes on and let’s go! This is a matter of life and death!”

“It’s really not.” Harry put everything back in the fridge, though, knowing this was an argument he wasn’t going to win.

Soon, they were in Harry’s car, headed toward the grocery store a few minutes away. Harry pulled into a parking spot near the front and they stepped out of the car, hurrying toward the building to get out of the cold temperatures as quickly as possible.

Harry grabbed Louis’ hand as they walked through the front door.

“Can we get Cinnamon Toast Crunch?” Louis asked innocently, as he started to swing their hands between them. “I noticed that you don’t have any.”

“Sure. You might as well take it with you tomorrow when we leave. My mom and Robin won’t eat it.”

“I can do that.”

They reached the back of the store and easily found the pepperoni.

“One pack or two?” Louis asked.

“One should be good. Just another thing for you to take with you tomorrow.”

“You won’t eat pepperoni straight from the pack?”

Harry shook his head. “Nah. Jake might, though. I can let him have the extra.”

Louis tried to keep his face neutral at the mention of Jake’s name. He still hadn’t exactly told Harry about his and Jake’s conversation in Atlantic City. He hadn’t wanted to ruin Harry’s birthday or Valentine’s Day, especially since they both already had negative feelings toward the latter day.

He vowed that after tomorrow, he would tell Harry the next time they saw each other face-to-face, which he sincerely hoped would be next weekend.

Harry took the pack of pepperoni and headed toward the cereal aisle. He saw the Cinnamon Toast Crunch on the top shelf and pressed his lips together, knowing Louis wouldn’t be able to reach it.

“Oh, there it is,” Harry said nonchalantly, hoping Louis wouldn’t say anything, but knowing that he would.

“I’ll get it,” Louis told him. He stood on his tiptoes and reached up to grab a box, but because it was pushed back a few inches, and not at the very end of the shelf, he couldn’t reach.

Just like Harry predicted.

Louis huffed and glared at Harry.

“What?” Harry asked. “I didn’t say anything.”

“But you’re thinking it.”

“I am not.”

“I know you, and you are. Get down.”

“Huh?”

“Kneel down a little.”

Harry did so, and then Louis jumped on his back.

“Jesus!” Harry cried out, wavering a little in his step as he gripped onto Louis’ legs, holding him in place. “You could’ve warned me.”

“Yeah, I could’ve. Now come on, I have to get my cereal.”

Harry rolled his eyes, but moved closer to the shelf. Now that he was higher up, Louis could easily reach the box that sat closest to the front. 

“OK," he said once he held it in his hand. "You can put me down." 

Harry shook his head. “Nah." 

“What do you mean, ‘nah’?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I knew you liked me being on top,” Louis whispered into Harry’s ear.

Harry laughed loudly and started walking toward the end of the aisle.

“So you’re just gonna carry me around for a while?” Louis wondered.

“Maybe.”

And then he started running.

Louis gasped and tightened his grip on both the cereal and Harry.

When Harry reached the end of the aisle, he stopped and spun in a fast circle.

“Oh, my God,” Louis said, giggling. “You’re insane.”

“Yeah, well… You love me.”

“That I do.”

Louis leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Come on; let’s go home.”

“OK.”

He started walking again, and almost immediately after Harry turned the corner, he bumped into someone.

“Oh, I’m so-” he started to apologize. He stopped when he saw who it was: Aiden.

“Shit,” Harry heard Louis whisper.

Aiden, who was holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and was still wearing his employee uniform, stared at the two of them with narrow eyes and a clenched jaw.

“Hi,” he said seriously, like he couldn’t believe this was happening.

Louis started squirming against Harry’s back, so Harry loosened his hold and lowered him to the ground.

“How are you?” Harry asked.

“Fine. Seems like you guys are, too.”

Louis looked down at his feet, not knowing what he was supposed to do in this situation.

“Flowers, huh?” Harry asked. Louis wished he would shut up.

“Yup. I have a date. I hope it goes well; my last Valentine’s Day wasn’t that great.”

That got Harry to stop. He clamped his mouth shut and looked over to Louis, who just gave him a quick glance.

“Well, I should be going,” Aiden told them. “I have to head home and get changed. But have a good night, guys. I know Valentine’s Day is your favorite holiday.”

He walked away from them, leaving both Harry and Louis staring silently at the spot where he’d just been standing.

“Um…” Louis said a moment later.

“We should get in line. Pay for these.”

Harry held up the package of pepperoni in his hands and nodded at the box of cereal still in Louis’ hands.

“Yeah. We should.”

They went to the first open register they saw and stood behind a woman who was getting ready to pay.

While they stood there, Louis cautiously reached his hand out, nudging the back of Harry’s hand with his own.

Harry smiled softly at him and linked their fingers together.

Louis smiled back, thankful that the night hadn’t been totally ruined.

\---

Niall had definitely had better Valentine’s Days before.

Last year’s was wonderful, as it had been his and Josh’s first one as a couple. This year, however, wasn’t so great.

The day had gotten off to a rough start. Just as Niall was getting ready to leave his apartment, he’d received a text from Josh.

**_Josh: So, I’m still at work, but I should be leaving soon. My parents promised to stay until you got there, just in case I’m not there to let you in._ **

The text had left Niall feeling a little confused, as he didn’t know why Josh was still at work. First of all, it was a Saturday, and Josh didn’t usually work on Saturdays. And second of all, it was fucking Valentine’s Day. The two of them should’ve been spending the entire day together, and instead, their time was reduced to just a few hours tonight and part of tomorrow.

By the time he’d gotten to Josh’s house, it had been after three in the afternoon, and Josh walked through the front door at five o’clock sharp to find a very irritated boyfriend on his sofa.

Now they were at the ice skating rink, and Josh had checked his phone at least four times since the time they’d arrived until the very second they first stepped onto the ice.

Right now, his phone was tucked away in his pocket, but Niall could tell he was just itching to check it.

Niall was annoyed. He was happy for Josh’s job, but he had hoped there would be a little more alone time, as well as focus on their relationship, during the most romantic day of the year.

And Josh knew how Niall felt, too, which explained his attempts at small talk as they skated around the rink.

“So, are you ready to graduate yet?” Josh asked.

Niall chuckled. “Not quite yet, but I know it’s coming. I’m really going to miss everything about school, to be honest.”

“Really? Everything?”

“OK, mainly just the apartment with the guys, but also everyone at the paper. Like, saying goodbye to Casey’s going to be tough. Crazy as she is, I got attached to the girl.”

“Anything I should be worried about?” Josh raised an eyebrow suggestively.

Niall stared at him. “Yeah, right.”

Josh laughed, but it was cut short when he pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen.

Niall cleared his throat.

Josh quickly put his phone away and looked up with a smile. “Sorry.”

Niall hummed and smiled back, although his was a bit stiffer than Josh’s was. “So work’s good, I guess?”

“Yeah, it’s great. I didn’t think I would get too much responsibility at first, but it's coming along nicely.”

“I see that. Something’s keeping you pretty occupied. Must be important.”

“You’re way more important,” Josh said. “I promise.”

Niall smiled again, and this time, it was a bit more genuine.

They went around the rink a few more times before they got tired of the crowd and stepped off. After putting their shoes back on, they went in search of hot chocolate.

“I want the biggest size they have,” Niall told Josh as they moved up a spot in line. “I’m freezing.”

When Josh didn’t respond, Niall glanced over at him, only to find him checking his phone again.

“Josh!”

This time, Josh jumped. “Sorry.”

“Can you at least tell me what’s going on that has you so distracted?”

“Sorry, babe; it’s sort of confidential. At least, until we know more. I _can_ tell you, though, that it has to do with more than one member of the team.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“It is; and until we have more information, we have to keep things under wraps.”

Niall sighed. “Fine.”

“I’m sorry,” Josh said honestly.

Niall just shrugged.

“So, how’s Harry doing? I guess he’s better now that he’s taking less classes?”

“So much better. Like, you should see him now. Of course he’s still busy, but he doesn’t look halfway to death any more. He actually has time for us now.”

“I bet Louis’ happy with that part.”

Niall nodded. “Yup. He was so cute yesterday. He was trying to figure out what to do for housing next semester.”

“Oh, he doesn’t know yet?”

“Nah. Louis’ supposed to ask him this weekend.”

“So we should expect a text, then?”

“They better fucking text me,” Niall said. “I’m only one of their best friends.”

“I’m sure they will, babe.”

A few minutes later, they were next to order their hot chocolate.

“Do you want heart-shaped marshmallows in yours?” Josh asked.

“Of _course._ ”

He laughed and walked up to the counter. While Josh spoke to the person in the booth, Niall looked out to the side, taking in the sight of the Delaware River and the Ben Franklin Bridge in the distance. The bridge was all lit up and the lights were reflecting off the surface of the water.

It looked beautiful, and it made Niall just a little calmer.

Until he looked back to see where Josh was, only to find his boyfriend reading another message on his phone.

“Josh!”

This time, Josh didn’t look up from his phone.

Niall rolled his eyes and grabbed his hot chocolate when it was placed on the ledge of the booth. He walked away from Josh, and ignored his boyfriend when he called after him.

\---

“You can eat, you know,” Zayn told Perrie as she took another sip of her wine.

She just shook her head and pushed her pasta away from her. “No, it’s fine. I’ll wait for you. I might be drunk by the time your food gets here, but I’ll wait.”

Zayn smiled. Their waitress had brought their food out a few minutes ago, but she had gotten Zayn’s order wrong. Apparently, she thought he said pork tenderloin instead of beef. After kindly telling her that he couldn’t eat pork, she apologized, said that the evening had been crazy and immediately took his plate back to get him the correct food.

Of course he understood; it was Valentine’s Day, so the restaurant was packed, and waiters were moving through the room and entering and exiting the kitchen at lightning speed. It didn’t make him any less hungry, though.

“At least have another breadstick,” Zayn said, offering her the basket on their table.

“If I have another breadstick, I won’t be hungry for my actual food.”

“Keep drinking that wine, and you definitely won’t be.”

Perrie shrugged a shoulder and said, “True,” before taking a breadstick. “So how’s the internship? Still busy?”

“Pretty much,” Zayn told her. “The next exhibit starts in less than three weeks, and we’re still waiting on RSVPs from people for opening night. And the artist keeps changing how she wants her paintings hung, so we have to rearrange them like, once a week.”

“She sounds ridiculous.”

“A little bit; yeah. But at least all of the descriptions for the paintings are typed. It’s just a matter of keeping them up.”

“And how’s work?”

“It’s good,” Zayn said. “You know, I feel a lot more comfortable being in front of people than I did when I first started.”

“See? I told you you would! You just had to practice it.”

“Yeah, I guess. How’s your job going?”

“Ugh,” Perrie groaned.

“That good, huh?”

“Not exactly. I mean, I don’t hate it, but the customers really suck sometimes.”

Zayn laughed. “I think I’ve heard that about working in retail.”

“Like last night,” Perrie said, launching into a story, “I had two women come in at 9:50, and we close at ten.”

“Oh, no.”

“Yup. So they’re browsing the racks, and I’m watching them from my register. And everything’s cool; they’re just looking around and talking. But then they go into the fitting room, and I wanted to bash my face in.”

“What’s wrong with people?”

“I seriously don’t know. So at ten o’clock, I go to the dressing room and knock on their stalls, and I politely tell them that the store is closed, so they need to leave. One of them yells back that they’re almost finished and that they’ll be out. So I called my manager, told him what was going on and then went back to wait for them. Five minutes later, they’re not finished, so I knock again, and then they say that they’re coming out now. They walk out right after that, and I look past them to see that both of their dressing rooms had clothes on the floor _and_ on the hooks.”

“You should be able to make them put it back. They made the mess,” Zayn said.

“I wish I could do that; it would make my job so much easier. Anyway, here’s the best part. I noticed that they had walked in with a few pairs of True Religion jeans, and those are _not_ cheap. But the jeans weren’t in the room anywhere; however, both of them looked a little fuller under the sweatpants they were wearing.”

“Oh, no!”

“Oh, yes! They were totally shoplifting. And because they were the last ones in the store, security had been watching them. Apparently, they’d hit another store in the area the day before, so their pictures were distributed to the security teams throughout the whole region. By the time I figured it out, security and the manager that I had called earlier were waiting for them by the main doors, and they got taken down to the office.”

“Wow.”

“I know.” Perrie shook her head. “It was so crazy. They each would’ve gotten off with a couple hundred dollars worth of merchandise, including the shirts they’d stuffed inside the sleeves of their coats.”

“And you stopped them. Good for you. You’re like a retail superhero.”

Perrie laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far. But yeah, I kind of did pretty well.”

Just then, their waitress came up with Zayn’s correct order.

“I’m so sorry again, sir,” she said.

“It’s really OK. Thank you, though.”

“You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can get for you?”

“I’m good. Pez?”

“Can I have some more wine?” she asked, holding up her nearly empty glass.

“Of course.”

Zayn laughed and Perrie just blew him a kiss.

The rest of their meal was uneventful, although they did watch another couple get engaged. The woman had tears streaming down her face when the man slipped the ring onto her finger.

“Don’t propose to me like that,” Perrie whispered across the table. “Too flashy.”

Zayn nodded, unable to hide his grin. He and Perrie didn’t talk about marriage that often, but when they did, it always painted a pleasant picture in his mind.

When they were done, they split a red velvet dessert and paid the check.

“How do you feel?” Zayn asked as they got into his truck.

“A little fuzzy, but I’m good,” Perrie answered.

“Not enough breadsticks, I see.”

She laughed. “Shut up and drive.”

“OK, Rihanna.”

“God, that song is so old.”

“But still relevant, it seems.”

They drove back to Perrie’s house in silence, and walked inside just as quietly. Judging by the cars in the driveway, it looked like Perrie’s parents were home from their evening out, and were likely already asleep by now.

They went into Perrie’s room and Zayn started pulling his pajamas out of his overnight bag.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom and take this makeup off,” Perrie said.

Zayn nodded and they quickly kissed before she left the room.

He got changed and folded his clothes up. He went to sit on the bed, planning on brushing his teeth when Perrie came back. Before he could, however, a flash of purple caught his eye from Perrie’s desk. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a white torch inside of a purple square – NYU’s logo.

Zayn felt his heart rate start to pick up. Perrie hadn’t mentioned hearing back from NYU already. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Perrie wasn’t about to come in, but he could hear the faucet running in the bathroom down the hall.

Already hating himself for invading her privacy, he picked up the letter and unfolded it. He skimmed over it, but the only word that stuck out for him was ‘waitlist.’ Perrie had been waitlisted to NYU, which, wasn’t ideal, but at least it wasn’t a rejection.

“OK, then…” he whispered to himself. He understood why Perrie hadn’t mentioned it, then. She was probably annoyed at being put on the waitlist, and maybe even a little embarrassed. He told himself that he wouldn’t say anything about it until she did.

He folded the letter back up and was going to replace it, but then he saw another letter, and this one was from Berkeley. Without a second thought, he read that, as well, and his heart stopped when the first word under Perrie’s name and address was ‘Congratulations!’

As much as he hadn’t wanted this to happen, Perrie had been accepted to Berkeley, but not to NYU.

He didn’t know just how soon NYU would let applicants know when they were off the waitlist and officially accepted or not, but he hoped it would be right away. Otherwise, his girlfriend would most likely be going to the opposite side of the country.

He replaced the letters and sat down on the bed.

A few minutes later, Perrie came back.

Zayn stood up, needing to splash some cool water on his face. Before he left the room, he nonchalantly – as much as possible, anyway - asked, “Hey, when are you supposed to start hearing back from grad schools?”

Perrie immediately tensed up. She turned to Zayn with her eyebrows raised. “Um… Soon, I think.”

“Soon?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure. Maybe next month?”

“Oh. So you haven’t heard from any yet?”

Perrie shook her head. “No, not yet. God, the waiting is killing me, you know?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. Well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get something soon.”

Perrie smiled. “Thanks.”

Zayn nodded and went to the bathroom. When he got there, he shut the door behind him and let out a deep breath.

If he had been worried about this whole grad school thing before, now he was just downright terrified.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure you don't get acceptance letters from grad schools that quickly, but just go with me on this one. (It fit with the timeline of the story, OK?)


	23. Unhappy Valentine's Day! (Sunday)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter takes place immediately following the last one - Sunday, the day after Valentine's Day.

_“You don’t think it’s too soon, do you?” Liam asked anxiously._

_Louis shook his head. “Of course not. You’ve been together almost a year now. It’s the next logical step. She’ll probably be trying to get a job in the area, and if not, then the two of you would probably want to get a place together anyway. It makes sense to ask her to live here first if she doesn’t get a job right away.”_

_Liam nodded. He hated when Louis was the voice of reason because Liam was too worried to be._

_“Yeah, you’re right.”  
_

_Louis took pity on Liam. “Look, man, when you ask her, she’ll say ‘yes.’ I mean, you guys are together all the time, anyway. I really don’t see any reason why she would say ‘no.’”_

_“Thanks, Lou.”_

_“You’re welcome.”_

_A few minutes passed as they ate their breakfast._

_“Hey, do you think Harry would say ‘yes’ if I asked him to move in, too?”_

Liam thought back to the conversation he and Louis had had the morning after having Harry and Dani over for dinner in the new apartment.

He and Louis had promised each other that, this weekend, they would ask their significant others to move in. Liam had been thinking about it since he woke up, and he still wasn’t sure how to bring up the subject.

Liam and Dani were sitting on the couch in Liam’s living room. They’d woken up early and had just finished breakfast. Now they were looking for something to watch.

Liam stole another glance at Dani, trying to figure out how to segue into the next topic of conversation.

Dani was the one who decided for him, by opening with, “I lied to you.”

Liam turned to look at Dani, having an idea about what she might be talking about. He knew she’d been hiding something from him last night, and it looked like she’d decided that this would be a good time to tell him what it was.

“You lied to me?” Liam asked. “About what?”

Dani took a deep breath. “Um, I’ve been looking for jobs, like I told you last night.”

“Right…”

“And I found one that I really like. Um, it’s a show, and it involves a lot of music and some dancing, too.”

“It sounds great! Can you get an audition?”

“Well…” Dani said. “Um, yeah. I have one, actually. Sort of.”

“Dani, that’s amazing! When is it? And what do you mean, ‘sort of’?”

“Well, I have to submit an audition tape by March 1, and after that, they’ll call me and set up a time to come in and meet with the casting directors and stuff.”

“This is incredible. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” Liam told her.

“Well, that’s not all of it,” Dani revealed.

“It’s not?”

“No. Um… Well, it’s for STOMP. You know the New York show where they make music with like, trash cans and brooms and random stuff?”

“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to see that,” Liam admitted.

“It’s an awesome show. Maybe we can go see it one day.”

“Sounds good.”

“Yeah. But, the thing is, the audition isn’t for the show in New York.”

“OK… Where is it for?”

Dani took a deep breath. “London.”

Liam felt his heart drop out of his chest. “What?”

“Yeah.”

“But that’s…”

“Yeah,” Dani repeated. “I know.”

Liam didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything.

Dani knew it was a lot to take in, so she gave him some time before trying to talk to him again.

Liam sighed, because as much as he wanted to be the perfect, supportive boyfriend right now, it had him worried.

“How long would you be gone?” he eventually asked.

“Well, if I get the part, I would start at the end of the summer, and my contract would be for a year.”

“So you’d be in London for a year? Probably longer because your contract would absolutely get renewed.”

“Liam…”

“What? You and I both know that if you get hired, you’re there to stay. You’re too brilliant to be let go.”

Dani blushed, but didn’t say anything else.

“So, we would have the summer together and then you’d be off to London?”

“Maybe!” Dani took Liam’s face in her hands, making him look right at her. “Liam, there is no guarantee that I’m going anywhere. This is all just a big ‘What If?’ There’s still, like, a one in a million chance of being asked to try out live for the directors.”

“But they liked you enough to ask for an audition tape?”

“Well… I guess so. Yeah.”

“Do they ask just anybody for an audition tape?”

“No, but Liam-”

“I’m so proud of you.”

“You- What?” Dani asked, confused by the turn the conversation had just taken. She thought Liam was on the path to a nervous breakdown, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“I’m so proud of you. This is huge! You’re auditioning for a real show. And a really popular one, at that. It’s not just some random production put on at the YMCA. It’s a legit thing. And hey, now I have a reason to visit London.”

“You would want to come out to see me?”

“Of course!” Liam said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I mean, we would be super long-distance…”

“I’m OK with that if you are.”

Dani beamed. “I am.”

“So what’s the problem? Yeah, it’ll be tough and I’ll miss you like hell, but I couldn’t live with myself if I thought that even for a second, you were holding yourself back because of where I’m living. You need to do what’s best for you, too, even if I can’t be right by your side.”

“How did I get so lucky to find someone as supportive as you?”

Liam shrugged. “How did I get so lucky to find someone as talented as you?”

Dani quickly leaned in and gave Liam a long kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. You have any more earth-shatteringly good news to share with me?”

“No, I think that’s it.”

“Good. I’m still proud of you.”

Dani smiled again and grabbed the remote from him. She started to flick through channels again, as they still hadn’t found anything to watch.

Liam settled into the couch, now focusing on Dani possibly moving to London, with all thoughts of asking her to move in out the window.

Something deep in his gut told him that Dani would definitely be moving at the end of the summer, but it wouldn’t be in with him.

\---

Harry woke up to an empty bed. After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he got up and went to the bathroom. Once he was finished, he went off in search of his boyfriend.

He found Louis in the kitchen, just taking a pancake out of the pan on the stove and adding it to a small pile he’d already made.

“You made breakfast?”

Louis just nodded.

Harry walked up behind him and slowly wrapped his arms around Louis’ waist, watching as Louis poured more batter into the pan.

“I didn’t sleep all that well,” Louis admitted.

“I know. I kept waking up because you were tossing and turning.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s OK. Want to tell me what’s bothering you?”

Louis shook his head.

Harry softly kissed the back of his neck. “Please?”

Louis sighed. “I don’t want to fight.”

Harry was taken aback. He moved to stand next to Louis and ducked his face, trying to make eye contact.

“Why would we fight?”

“Not us,” Louis said. “Me and Aiden.”

“Why would you fight Aiden?”

“Because he’s a fucking prick who doesn’t know how to let things go.”

It was Harry’s turn to sigh. “Louis…”

“No. Don’t tell me to calm down.”

Louis flipped the pancake he was cooking.

“I wasn’t going to tell you to calm down.”

“Yes, you were, Harry. Either that or that you didn’t want to talk about it, and I’m sorry, but I want to talk about it.”

“OK. So talk. You know I always listen.”

“I know; like, I get that what happened last year was a shitty situation and that we were clearly in the wrong, but… You weren’t happy in your relationship with him, and even though Jake is a great guy, he wasn’t it for me. _You_ were; just like I’m it for you, not to assume anything.”

Harry smiled. “You’re not assuming. You’re it.”

Louis winked and continued. “I just wish he didn’t have to still be so spiteful. Like, we’re together now and apparently, he had a date last night, so why does he have to make asshole comments like the ones he made to us?”

“Louis, it’s not that simple. I mean, Aiden and I have known each other for like, ten years. We were best friends for a long time before we started dating. Our families already knew each other, we had a lot of mutual friends, we knew everything about each other… For him, it was like we were meant to be. It just wasn’t like that for me.”

“Why are you defending him?” Louis asked, taking the pancake out of the pan. He placed it with the others before turning off the stove. “Like, I get he was your friend, but he’s really not anymore.”

“Because he had it kind of rough when we broke up.”

Louis looked at Harry in confusion. “How do you know? Did you talk to him?”

“Yeah. I did, actually.”

“When?”

“Um… Look, I was going to tell you, but-”

“Tell me what?”

“Louis,” Harry said slowly, “let me get this all out before you say anything, OK?”

Louis set his jaw. “OK.”

“Like I said, I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to upset you because it didn’t matter.”

“Why would it upset me? What did he say to you?”

“Louis, you promised.”

Louis licked his lips and pressed them together. He nodded at Harry to continue.

“OK, so it was when I came up for my mom’s birthday back in October.”

Louis’ eyes widened.

“I know it was a while ago, Louis. Shut up. Anyway, I ran into him at the supermarket when I was picking up my mom’s cake. I said I was really sorry for how everything went down, and he said that I should be. He also said he didn’t tell anyone the real reason we broke up. He told me that his mom was sad that we split and she called me a great guy, which I guess made him feel worse because he pretty much hated me at that point. Then he said that he figured the two of us got together after everything and that we were perfect together. But he didn’t mean it in a nice way.”

Louis’ eyes were dark by the time Harry finished. It scared Harry a little bit.

“Louis?”

“Was that everything?”

Harry nodded.

“OK. Where does he live?”

“He- What?”

“Where does he live? I want to go talk to him.”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

“Why not?” Louis asked angrily. “Why not, Harry? He can’t say that shit to you! I mean, October? That was eight months after he caught us. And yeah, I get that what happened was fucked up and if I was in his shoes, I’d be pissed, too, but come _on._ ”

“Louis, I _cheated_ on him! With you, multiple times; he already didn’t trust you before it happened and then he found us and saw us kissing with his own eyes. That was one of the worst things I could do to him while in a relationship with him and then he had to come home and tell everyone we weren’t together anymore, but he was too embarrassed to say why. I hurt him so badly, and as much as I want him to get past it, it’s not my place to tell him when he needs to be OK with the situation. If he’s angry, he’s allowed to be angry. I don’t like the shit he says, but at least he’s not telling everybody what happened; he’s not ruining my reputation or spreading lies about us. As far as I know, he’s just making comments to me when he sees me, and I can deal with that.”

“But you shouldn’t have to!”

Harry shrugged. “I’m not happy with it, either. But for the time being, I can live with his dislike or hatred or whatever toward me. It’s only been twice; that’s how many times I’ve seen him around town since everything happened.”

“Well if it was up to me, you wouldn’t see him ever again,” Louis muttered.

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

Louis slapped a palm to his forehead. “Shit, no. That sounded… homicidal and possessive, to be honest. Um… fuck.”

“Louis, please explain what you meant.”

“OK, um, I didn’t mean to ask you this way, but um, I was actually wondering if you would want to move in with me?”

Harry’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Yeah, um… Either after this year ends or when the next one begins. Just, I know you have to figure out housing for next semester and I figured that since my apartment is closer to school than your house is, it wouldn’t be as annoying to commute to and from campus. And if you lived with me, you wouldn’t have to live up here, which is where the ‘not seeing Aiden’ comment came in. There wouldn’t be the chance of seeing him around town, you know?”

“Lou…”

“And Liam and I talked about it. He’s actually going to ask Dani the same thing this weekend. I should text him and find out if he did yet. But anyway, you wouldn’t have to help out with rent or anything, just with like, groceries or maybe like cable or something.”

“Oh, my God…” Harry said quietly.

“Is it too soon? Do you think it is? Because I don’t, Haz. I know we haven’t been together a full year yet, but I love you so much, and last semester was just, torture for me and for us and I know that if we had seen each other more, a lot of what happened could have been avoided. And just, H, I really want you to live with me.”

“Stop.”

Louis looked like he wanted to keep talking, but he pressed his lips together to let Harry speak.

“Did you tell Niall about this?”

Louis looked confused. “Um, yeah, I mentioned wanting to ask you…”

“Fucking leprechaun,” Harry said. His ‘don’t stress yourself out too much’ comment on Friday made a lot more sense now. “Louis, I would love to live with you.”

Louis’ face lit up. “Really?”

“Of course I would. But…”

Louis’ face fell just as quickly.

“I need to talk to Jake first. We were supposed to figure out housing together and I don’t want to leave him high and dry.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I didn’t even think about Jake, to be honest.”

“Why?” Harry asked.

“Um… I don’t know.”

“I mean, he’s been my roommate the last two years, why wouldn’t you wonder if I wanted to live with him again?”

“I don’t know, I’ve been- I’m trying to leave him alone.”

“Why?”

“Um…” Louis looked away, suddenly wishing that someone would come home and interrupt their conversation.

“Louis?”

“Uh… OK. Now it’s my turn to make a confession. Let me get this all out, all right?”

Harry nodded.

“So, it was back in October for Jake’s birthday.”

Harry raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I know. Apparently, we both have secrets from October.”

Harry bit his lower lip at Louis’ statement and stayed silent.

“So, it was like, after everybody went to bed, and I overheard Jake talking to his friends, and basically, they were asking if it made him upset every time we kissed and if he kept wondering how his life would be different if I had fallen for him instead of you.”

“Wait…”

“Yeah. Jake still likes me.”

Harry shook his head. “No. There’s no way.”

“See, I didn’t think that there was, either, but then when we went to AC for your birthday-”

“There’s more to this?”

“Yes! Let me finish! I asked him if it was true and he said that it was, Harry. He said that he doesn’t want you to hate him because you’re one of his best friends. He said that he doesn’t want to feel this way, but he does, and that if I wanted to help him, I would just leave him alone. So that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“Jake still likes you,” Harry whispered.

“Harry, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t. It’s… How did I not notice?”

Louis stayed silent.

“So I guess this is the real reason why you were so weird around Jake at New Year’s?”

Louis just nodded.

Harry sighed. “I need to talk to him.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

A few minutes passed in silence before Harry spoke again.

“Well, this has been enlightening.”

Louis smiled. “Yeah.”

“You think these pancakes are still warm?”

“They should be.”

“If not, we can go to the diner before we head back.”

“Uh, I cooked these pancakes. I’ll eat them even if they’re cold.”

Harry laughed. “I know you will.”

He pulled some plates from the cabinet next to him. He put them down on the counter, but before he could get his food, Louis cupped Harry’s face with his hands.

“I love you,” Louis said honestly.

Harry smiled. “I love you, too.”

\---

Josh walked into his room to see Niall fast asleep, which was understandable, as it was only seven in the morning and still completely dark outside.

He arched his back, trying to crack it. It was still a bit stiff from sleeping on the couch last night. He knew Niall was pissed at him, but did he really have to make Josh sleep on the couch in his own house instead of in his bed?

“Niall,” he whispered as he walked over to the bed. He started shaking Niall awake, knowing this could take some time. “Ni, wake up.”

Niall grunted and rolled over, pulling the comforter over his head.

Josh grabbed the blanket and yanked it back, knowing Niall would likely try to do something like that.

“Babe, you have to get up. Come on. We have places to be.”

“Fuck you; it’s freezing out there. Give me the blanket back.”

“No,” Josh said. “Come on, I promise you’ll love this. And I have to make up for last night. We can agree on that, can’t we?”

Niall turned his head and looked up at Josh with just one eye open. “Yeah, I can definitely agree with that.”

“Good. So get up. Shower if you want to, but come eat breakfast. We have to go.”

“Go where?” Niall asked, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

“It’s a surprise, but I promise it’s a really good one. Come on!”

Without another word, Josh left the room, leaving Niall alone to use every last bit of determination in his body to keep himself from going back to sleep.

After a moment, Niall rolled up to his feet and took a quick shower in the bathroom down the hall.

Fifteen minutes later, Niall walked into the kitchen, fully dressed with sort-of styled hair. Josh’s mom was just placing her dishes in the sink.

“Hey, sweetie,” she greeted him with a warm hug.

“Hey, Mrs. D.”

“Have fun today, OK? He does feel bad about last night.”

“Mom!” Josh said from his spot at the breakfast table.

“Sorry. I’m leaving. I’ll see you boys later.”

She exited the room and Niall heard her go upstairs, leaving them alone.

Niall sat down at the table across from Josh and saw a plate waiting for him. It had a napkin covering it to keep the food warm, and when Niall pulled it back, he found French toast, bacon and eggs.

He eagerly started eating. He loved the way Josh’s mom made French toast, and from the first bite, he knew that she had in fact been the one to cook it.

They ate mostly in silence, the scraping of silverware against plates and the ticking of the clock on the wall being the only sounds that filled the room.

“So, what’s the plan?” Niall asked once he was nearly finished.

Josh just shook his head. “It’s a surprise. We have a half-hour drive ahead of us, though, so we need to leave soon if we’re going to make it by 8:30.”

“Should I feel nervous for my well being?”

“Of course not. You’ll have fun. We just have to go.”

Josh got up then, dumped his plates in the sink and went up the stairs to finish getting ready for the day.

Niall shrugged and did the same.

When they were all set to go, they jumped into Josh’s car. While they waited for it to warm up a little, Niall fiddled with the radio.

He eventually settled on a station that was playing an old Drake song and got comfortable in the seat.

“So, where are we going?”

Josh just smiled and turned up the volume before pulling away from the curb.

They listened to the music as they drove. Neither one of them tried to start up a conversation, but halfway through the trip, Niall took Josh’s hand in his own and held it there.

Josh quickly glanced over at their joined hands and smiled. Niall just gave a tight squeeze and refocused his attention out the window.

They pulled into a parking lot just after 8:30. Niall stepped out and read ‘Winter Skate Arena’ above the main entrance. He followed Josh inside and watched as he shook hands with another man who wore a heavy coat, beanie, jeans and boots.

“Niall, this is Steve; Steve, this is my boyfriend, Niall,” Josh introduced.

“Hey, nice to meet you,” Niall said, shaking Steve’s hand.

Steve nodded. “Likewise. OK, so you got the place for an hour. You have to be done by 9:30, because there’s an ice skating team coming in for practice at ten. Leave your skates behind the counter and I’ll spray them when you’re done.”

“Thanks, man,” Josh told him. “I really appreciate this.”

“I know you do. Just don’t forget: this never happened.”

Josh and Niall nodded.

Steve winked. “Have fun, boys.”

He backed away from them before turning around and walking back out the door through which Niall and Josh had just come.

“OK, what is going on?” Niall finally asked once they were alone.

“I was an idiot last night,” Josh said. “And I want to apologize for it. That’s what’s going on.”

Niall shook his head. “No, babe, I should’ve been more understanding of the situation. I mean, it’s your _job_ , not _The Taylor Times._ You’re a real adult with real responsibilities, and I shouldn’t have made you feel bad for trying to keep up with them.”

“But I should’ve put my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ last night, even if it was just for a little while. You deserved so much more attention than what I gave you, and I feel guilty about everything.”

Niall smiled. “Can we both just both say ‘sorry’ and move on?”

“I’d love to.”

Josh leaned in and pecked Niall on the lips. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. So… we’re ice skating?”

“Yup,” Josh said, taking Niall’s hand. He led him to the counter behind which the ice skates were stored. They walked through the side door and started browsing the different racks of skates.

“I used to come here when I was a kid,” Josh revealed. “Ben and I were actually pretty good. As we got older, we didn’t come here as much, but I think I still retained some knowledge.”

The two of them found skates in their size and went back out toward the ice. They sat down on a bench and started untying their sneakers.

“So you brought me here so we could… What? Make up for last night?” Niall asked.

“Pretty much. I mean, I know you were really looking forward to skating, and because of how crowded it was, and how dumb I was being, you didn’t really get to. So I called Steve early this morning, because I know there’s an ice hockey team that practices here from 6:30-8, so he was going to be up, and asked for a favor. He said as long as we were out on time, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Niall smirked. “It pays to know people, huh?”

“Sure does.”

When they finished lacing up their skates, they walked toward the ice. Josh stepped out first and Niall followed right after. They slowly started moving, getting used to skating and warming themselves up a little.

After a few minutes, Josh said, “So, since we’re alone, I can tell you what exactly is happening.”

“Josh, you don’t have to. I trust that it was something big.”

“Steroids,” Josh told him anyway. “That’s what’s happening with the team and why I was so distracted yesterday.”

“Some of the players were taking steroids?”

“Well, we’re not sure yet. They were all tested yesterday afternoon after drugs were found in a couple of the players’ lockers. We should be finding out the official results today. But, if any of them come back positive, it could take longer to confirm. Either way, we have to go to press tomorrow with the breaking headline.”

“Holy shit.”

Josh nodded. “I know. If any of their tests come back positive, the office is going to be nuts for a while. We’ll have to do interviews with the offending player, with all of the teammates, the coaches… We’ll be covering his punishment, plus the next few games to see how the team does without him and what changes are made to the lineup. And that’s if it’s only one player. If there was more than one, it’s going to be even tougher.”

“God, and I went and made you feel bad for not being entirely focused on me for a few hours.”

“No, I stand by what I said. I still should’ve put the phone down. Watching it didn’t make the test results come in any faster.”

“Will someone let you know when they do come in?” Niall asked.

“Yeah. It’ll probably be in a group email, along with a plan of action, like what time we all need to be in tomorrow and what we should prioritize. But there’s no use in stressing over it, so consider this my promise: I’m yours for the day.”

Niall beamed and flung himself into Josh’s arms. Unfortunately, the sudden shift in their stance made Josh waver, and sent both of them falling to the ice.

They landed with a grunt before Niall started laughing.

“I swear,” he eventually said between his giggles, “between you and Zayn in New York, I think I’ve fallen on the ice more in the last month than I have in the last ten years.”

Josh joined in on Niall’s laughter. “Hey, at least I know how to stay upright. It’s your fault we fell.”

“Is not.”

“Is, too!”

“Whatever you say.” Niall slowly rose to his feet. “Now come on, Superstar. Let’s see what else you got.”

“Those sound like fighting words,” Josh said, standing up, as well.

“Maybe they are.”

And then Niall skated off, gliding effortlessly across the ice.

Josh just rolled his eyes and shook his head. He muttered, “menace,” before skating after him.

\---

Zayn sat at the dining room table with Perrie, eating breakfast as if nothing was wrong. To Perrie, there _was_ nothing wrong, because as far as she knew, Zayn had no idea about the letters she’d received from NYU and Berkeley.

He knew he had to say something, but he didn’t know what. He would have to admit to looking through the things on her desk and invading her privacy. He knew she would be pissed, but all he wanted to know was why she didn’t tell him the truth when he’d asked if she’d heard from any schools.

He decided to just dive in headfirst.

“So, um… Can I talk to you about something?” he asked.

Perrie nodded. “Of course.”

“You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah… What’s the matter?”

“Uh, look, just know that you’re so important to me and I absolutely respect you and I’m so happy to have you and I just don’t want there to be any secrets between us because-”

“Zayn, spit it out.”

“I saw the letters on your desk,” Zayn blurted out. “The ones from NYU and Berkeley.”

Perrie froze.

The two of them sat silently, just staring at each other for what felt like hours.

“You what?” Perrie asked eventually.

“I saw the letters, Pez.”

“You mean you snooped on my desk and found them. I know I hid them at least a little bit; I didn’t just leave them right on top.”

“I’m sorry! I saw the NYU logo peeking out from underneath something and I couldn’t help myself.”

Perrie scoffed. “You couldn’t help yourself. Of course not.”

“Pez, I’m sorry.”

“Is that why you randomly asked me last night about when I would be hearing from grad schools? You wanted to test me and see if I would lie to you?”

“No!”

Perrie raised an eyebrow.

“OK, maybe.”

Perrie rolled her eyes as she stood up and walked out of the room.

Zayn stood and followed her. “Perrie, why didn’t you tell me?”

Perrie turned to face him. “Because I knew you would freak out, and look! Here you are, freaking out.”

“I’m not freaking out.”

“Oh, really? You’re not?”

“No!” Zayn said.

“So you didn’t get scared that there’s the serious chance I could wind up going to California instead of New York?”

“… No.”

“Liar.” Perrie continued walking, going into the living room.

“Perrie, come on.”

“No, Zayn! I knew that you weren’t thrilled with the idea of me moving away for school, and after I saw the ‘Congratulations!’ from Berkeley, I knew you would be even less thrilled.”

“I _am_ thrilled. You got into grad school! That’s a reason to celebrate!”

“I can’t celebrate if I know that the most important person in my life isn’t happy _and_ is lying about that.”

“I never lied about anything.”

“Yes, you did,” Perrie insisted. “Whenever we talked about this, and I mentioned being long-distance, you got this look on your face that said you’d rather swallow shards of glass than be in a long-distance relationship.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is! And I’m not exactly jumping for joy at the idea of being across the country from you, either, but if we have to do it, we will. You’ve been telling me for months that we’ll figure things out when the time comes, and guess what! The time has come. We need to talk about what this all means.”

“Just another reason why you should’ve told me that you got the letters,” Zayn said.

“I only got them a few days ago, and I would’ve preferred to wait until after our anniversary to discuss it. I figured we’d wind up yelling in each other’s faces.”

“I’m not yelling.”

“I’m not, either.”

“Let’s talk about it, then.”

“Fine. I want to go to Berkeley.”

“What?” Zayn asked. “So you’re just giving up on NYU entirely?”

“No. If I don’t get into NYU, I want to go to Berkeley. I mean, I’m still waiting on Northwestern and Syracuse, but as it stands right now, I’m most likely moving to California in September.”

Zayn took a deep breath. “OK…”

“What do you think?” Perrie wanted to know.

“I think that you’re right.”

She raised an eyebrow. “About what?”

“About being long-distance. I don’t want to do that.”

Perrie took a step back. “What?”

Zayn started shaking his head. “Just… You’re going to be so busy. You’ll have school and you’ll make new friends and you’ll get a job and I don’t want to be that loser guy who clings to his girlfriend who’s moved on to bigger and better things.”

“But I want you to be in my life, Zayn! I want to share all of this new stuff with you. It’s going to be terrifying moving out there by myself and I want to be able to share everything with you.”

“But Perrie, the whole long-distance thing… God, it almost tore Louis and Harry apart and they’re so much closer than we would be.”

“Their situation is totally different!”

“Really? Because it seems pretty similar. One of us will be busy with school and the other will be graduated and working. But at least they could drive to see each other when they ever had the time. What am I supposed to do? Get on a plane to spend a day or a weekend with you?”

“Of course not, but I’ll be home!”

“When? Thanksgiving and Christmas? And then you’ll go back for another few months?”

“Maybe! You already said that I’ll be busy with school, which is extremely true. So no, I can’t be with you all the time, but if it has to be done, then that’s what has to happen.”

“So you’ll be busy with school and I’ll be… what? I mean, I don’t have a clue what I’ll be doing when September comes around. I’ll be done my internship and who knows if I’ll have a different job? One that actually makes use of my degree?”

“So come with me,” Perrie said suddenly.

That caught Zayn off guard. “Huh?”

“Come with me. If I go to California, come with me.”

“Perrie, I can’t just do that.”

“Why not?” she asked. “What’s keeping you here? You just said that your internship will be done and you might not have a new job. Why can’t you look for one in California?”

“Because the rest of my life is here! I do still like my job, and my friends and family are all here!”

“Oh, really? Louis and Liam, who you could easily Skype or FaceTime with? Your job, which probably has plenty of places on the west coast to transfer to? Your mom, who just wants you to be happy? Your dad, who doesn’t give a shit about what you do with your day since it’s not a real job?”

“Hey! My father gives a shit about what I do!”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean that.”

“But you said it!” Zayn shot back. “So deep down, somewhere, you’re thinking it.”

“Well it’s not like it’s based on zero evidence, Zayn! How many discussions have we had about your dad’s lack of support for you finding a job you really want? What if the job you really want is on the west coast and that’s why you haven’t found it yet?”

“Perrie-”

“Just think about it!”

“No!”

Perrie just stared at him. “You won’t even think about it? Won’t even consider moving to be with me?”

“Pez-”

“So what does that mean, Zayn?” she wanted to know. “If I go to California, what does it mean if you don’t want to do long-distance and you don’t want to move with me?”

“You keep saying ‘if,’ though. You might not even go to Berkeley!”

“But what if I do? What if I don’t get accepted anywhere else and Berkeley’s my only choice? That means that I have to go and we have to have this discussion.”

“Well let’s have it when you get the news back from your other schools!”

“No!” Perrie yelled. “Let’s have this discussion right now!”

“Fine. I don’t know! How’s that? I don’t fucking know.”

“You… don’t know.” Perrie took a few more steps back and sat down on the couch. “You don’t know if you want to be with me or not?”

“Perrie, of course I want to be with you.”

“But only if I’m here? Is that it? I have to be here in order to continue dating you?”

Zayn shook his head. “No. That’s not it.”

“So make a choice. Do you want to come to California with me or be long-distance?”

“Pez-”

“No. You need to make a decision. If you still want to be with me, then you need to pick one of those options, because otherwise, this relationship is done.”

“You could still get into NYU,” Zayn whispered.

“And there’s a chance I won’t. Zayn, just-“ Perrie cut herself off with a shaky breath. “Zayn, why can’t you just pick one?”

“Because no matter what I pick, it’ll change everything.”

“Yeah, and it’ll also change everything if you don’t pick. So just decide on something because if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not waste my time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zayn asked.

“It means that you’ll have to make this choice either now or in a few months when I tell a school that I’ll be attending in the fall. If you’re not going to choose either of the options that keeps us in a relationship, then I’d rather just end it now.”

“You want to end this?”

“Don’t you?” Perrie shot back tearily as she stood back up. “You’ve already said you don’t want to do long-distance and you refuse to even think about moving, so what now? Are we over?”

“Pez, it doesn’t have to be like this.”

“Apparently it does! Because you still won’t pick anything. Welcome to the real world, Zayn, where not everything is peachy keen a hundred percent of the time. Sometimes you have to make decisions that don’t completely suit your needs. But in your case, it looks like you won’t make any decision. So why don’t you just go home?”

“What?”

“Leave. Go get your stuff and go home, because we’ve been together long enough that you should want to fight for this, that you should-” Perrie choked back a sob. “That you should know whether or not you want to be with me without having to think about it, and if it’s such a hard choice for you to make, then I’ll make it for you. We’re over. Get out!”

“Perrie!”

“Get the fuck out!” She shouted. “Just go home!”

Zayn took a step back. He’d never seen Perrie so angry before.

He reached a hand out. “Pez-“

“Don’t,” she said, moving away from him. The tears streamed down her face and she made no move to wipe them away as she stared him down.

With nothing else to say, Zayn went up to her room to grab his bag. He gathered up any of his belongings that he saw immediately, not wanting to linger.

He took one last look around before leaving the room and going back down the stairs.

Perrie was sitting back on the couch, her head in her hands as her shoulders silently shook.

Zayn stood on the last step, just watching her before he left the house for what could be the final time.

After a moment, he walked to the front door and put his hand on the handle.

“For the record,” Perrie said just loudly enough for Zayn to hear.

He stopped what he was doing and looked over to her.

She was looking straight at him now, steel resolve set in her puffy eyes.

“If the situation were reversed, I would’ve moved to be with you in a heartbeat.”

Zayn let out the breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding, then walked through the front door.

He didn’t look back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: The steroids thing with the Sixers that Josh was talking about was totally made up!


	24. One Step at a Time

Louis stumbled out of the bathroom Monday morning and found Liam already sitting at the dining table, eating breakfast.

“There’s waffles on the counter,” he said through a mouth full of food.

“Thanks.”

Louis helped himself to the waffles and poured a tall glass of milk before sitting down.

He started eating and looked over at Liam, who looked tired, as well as another emotion that Louis couldn’t place. But he didn’t look over-the-moon, which he would’ve looked if Dani had said she would move in.

“How’d your weekend go?” Louis asked cautiously.

“Dani’s going to London,” Liam answered almost immediately.

Louis dropped his fork. That had probably been the last thing he was expecting. “What?”

“Well, not yet; but she will be.”

“I’m lost here. You have to explain this to me.”

Liam sighed. “She’s auditioning for STOMP, but it’s not the show in New York. It’s for the one in London. If she gets the part, she would leave at the end of the summer.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So, I take it you didn’t ask her to move in, then?”

Liam just shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Liam.”

“It’s OK. I mean, she hasn’t gotten the part yet, and obviously I really want her to get it, but I’m trying not to stress out too much about her leaving yet.”

Louis nodded. “Got it.”

“Yeah. How was your weekend?”

“Uhh…”

“That good, huh?” Liam attempted to joke.

“Sort of. Um, well we ran into Aiden.”

“Why? Where?”

“We had to go to the supermarket to get some stuff, and apparently the universe hates us, because it was the same place where he works, and, of course, we walked right into him.”

“How did it go?” Liam asked. “Did he say anything?”

“Of course he did. He made some comments about how his Valentine’s Day last year sucked, and he knew it was our favorite holiday so he hoped we had a good night… Fucker.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right, I guess. But uh, I also told Harry about Jake.”

Liam watched Louis carefully. “And how did that go?”

“Harry said he’s going to talk to him, especially since he has to figure out his housing situation. I did ask him to move in, by the way.”

“And?”

“He’ll let me know after he talks to Jake. I think his answer will depend on how that conversation goes.”

“Wish I could be a fly on the wall for that one,” Liam said.

“Yeah. Me, too.”

\---

On Tuesday night, Harry waited patiently until Niall and Xander were both gone from the apartment before going into Jake’s room.

Jake was lying down on his bed, holding a notebook in front of his face and skimming the words he’d written.

Harry crawled in next to him, hearing Jake laughing as Harry rested his head on his shoulder.

“Can I help you?” Jake asked.

“What’re you doing?”

“Reading through my lab notes. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Oh, boy.”

Jake closed the notebook, though, waiting for Harry to say what was on his mind.

“Um…” Harry started. He sat up a little, turning his body fully toward Jake and resting on his elbow. “So…”

“What’s the matter, Harry?”

Harry took a deep breath. “So, Louis asked me to move in with him, in his apartment.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “Wow. That’s awesome.”

“Yeah. Um, I told him I wanted to talk to you first.”

“Why?”

“Because we talked about figuring out housing together, and I didn’t want to just ditch you.”

Jake scoffed. “Please. I’ll be fine, man. Move in with your boyfriend.”

“Really?”

“Of course, Harry. Come on. If you had to choose between living with me and Louis, you’d really pick me?”

Harry shrugged his top shoulder. “I mean, we’ve lived together the last two years, and, I don’t know… I’d miss seeing your ugly face every day.”

By the time he finished his sentence, they were both laughing.

“Congratulations, man,” Jake finally said once he caught his breath. “That’s awesome. Really.”

“Thanks.”

He stayed where he was, knowing what he had to ask next.

Jake noticed his hesitation. “Something else?”

“Yeah.”

“OK. What is it?”

“Well, it’s about Louis again.”

“OK…”

“Um, do you… still, like… like… Louis?”

Harry watched carefully as Jake froze, his body and face completely tense. Harry wasn’t sure he was still breathing.

Eventually, Jake relaxed enough to start doing the fake laugh he did, the one where he let out short, quick chuckles while his eyes shifted from side to side. It was also the one that told Harry that Jake was lying.

“Of course not!” Jake said unconvincingly. “Why would you think that?”

Harry scratched at the back of his neck. “Louis told me he overheard you at your birthday party, and that he talked to you about it in Atlantic City.”

Jake closed his eyes and covered his face with one of his hands. “Fuck,” he whispered.

“Jake, it’s OK.”

“No, it’s not!” Jake moved his hand and shot up, sliding down from his bed.

“Jake,” Harry tried again, swinging his legs over so he was sitting upright.

“No, he said he wasn’t going to tell you!”

“Don’t be mad at Louis; I made him tell me.”

“How?” Jake wanted to know.

“Well, after he, you know, asked me, I told him that I wanted to check with you first, and then he said he kind of forgot that we might be living together because he was trying to leave you alone. Naturally, I asked why he would need to leave you alone, and then he told me. He didn’t want to, though.”

“But he still did. He told me he wouldn’t tell you and he did!”

“Jake, I’m not mad at you!” Harry jumped down from the bed and looked Jake dead in the eyes. “I’m not mad at you for anything.”

“But you should be. You should be yelling at me and you should hate me and be angry that I still like your boyfriend and-”

“Jake, stop! Why would I do any of that? You’re beating yourself up enough for the both of us; why would I need to add on? You can’t help how you feel, but you’re doing the mature, responsible thing by admitting to it and not acting on it. You’re not doing anything behind my back; you’re not trying to steal Louis away from me. And let’s face it, last semester, if you actually tried, you probably could’ve.”

Jake snorted. “Not likely.”

“Very likely. I was a mess last semester. But you didn’t, because whatever you feel for Louis, you love me more. Right?”

Jake stared at Harry, a worried expression clear in his eyes before dropping his gaze to the floor.

“Jake, it’s OK,” Harry whispered.

He looked back up to Harry. “You’re one of my best friends, H. I can’t stand knowing that I’m betraying you like this.”

“You’re not betraying me. Didn’t you hear what I just said? Betraying me would be trying to kiss him after we started dating. Betraying me would be telling me to break up with him as a way to decrease some of my stress last semester. Betraying me, Jake, would be you doing anything in your power to end my relationship with Louis so you could start one back up. You never did any of that. Instead, you kept your feelings secret because you thought they might hurt me or ruin our friendship because I’m one of your best friends, and guess what? You’re one of mine, too. It’s not your fault.”

“How are you so calm of this?” Jake asked breathlessly. “If the situation were reversed, I don’t- I don’t know if I would be this relaxed.”

“Just…” Harry shrugged. “You had him first. I don’t know… I just- I don’t know! OK? I trust you and I trust Louis and it just doesn’t make sense to be angry over this. Just know that I don’t hate you. Quite the opposite, really. I still love you, man.”

Jake nodded, and trained his eyes on the ground, not knowing what else to say. As much as he wanted to continue beating himself up over this, it seemed like Harry wouldn’t let him.

Instead, Harry took a few steps forward and wrapped Jake in a tight hug. Jake easily hugged him back, and the two of them stood there for a few minutes.

When they pulled apart, Harry asked, “Are we OK?”

Jake nodded. “Of course we are.”

“Good.”

“Looks like you kind of have to move in with Louis now, huh?”

“It won’t be weird, will it? I mean, you’re obviously invited over whenever you want-”

“It would probably be better if I didn’t, honestly,” Jake said. “At least for now. But no, it won’t be weird. Harry, come on. Don’t let me influence your decision.”

Harry smiled. “Can’t help it.”

“I know you can’t.”

“All right, well, I have work I should be doing. If you’re sure we’re good…”

Jake nodded. “We’re perfect. I swear.”

“OK.”

Harry slowly walked out of Jake’s room and into his own. He breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that this meant the hardest part of this school year was fully past him.

\---

The next morning, Louis walked into the office like any other day. He turned on his computer, draped his coat over the back of his chair and put his keys, wallet and sunglasses in the top left drawer of his desk.

As he sat down, he heard Nick calling out to him from his office.

He jumped back up and hurried in, not wanting to keep Nick waiting. In the few months since Louis had been on probation, he’d been extra cautious around his boss, and considering Louis hadn’t been fired yet, he considered it a smart move on his part.

“Hey, Nick,” Louis greeted. “What’s up?”

“Shut the door and have a seat.”

“OK…” Louis muttered under his breath. He did as he was told, though, and waited to hear what Nick had to say.

“I’ll cut right to the chase,” Nick said. “You have an assignment.”

“I- Wait, what?”

Nick sighed. “What part of that didn’t you understand? You’re writing an article.”

“No, I heard you, but, I’m just surprised, is all.”

Nick raised his eyebrows. “You and me, both, Tomlinson. But, as it stands, I need Luke writing a breaking article today, which means that he’ll be unable to finish the update article about the casinos he was supposed to write for tomorrow’s issue. That’s where you come in.”

“You want me to write the casino update?” Louis asked, seriously wanting some confirmation.

“That’s right. Luckily for you, Luke has already done a lot of research on it and conducted some interviews, so all you need to do is put it all together. Seeing as he did all of the work, you two will share a byline, since you’ll be writing it.”

“OK.”

“So, go talk to Luke and get the information from him. I’ll need the article on my desk by 5 o’clock tonight. Any questions?”

Louis shook his head. “No, I think I’m good.”

“Good. Go talk to Luke and start working.”

“Thank you.”

Louis stood up and walked toward the door. Suddenly, a thought struck him.

“Why me?” he asked, turning around. “I mean, I know I’m not your favorite person around here, so why are you giving me the chance?”

Nick smiled. “Well, since we’re being honest here… no, you’re not my favorite person, although I’m sure the feeling is mutual, Tomlinson.”

Louis raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything else.

“But be that as it may, I gave Luke the choice of who he wanted to take over the article, and he picked you. So, really, you have him to thank for it.”

“He picked me?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what kind of blackmail you have over him, but it worked. Now hurry up and get writing. I don’t give deadline extensions.”

Louis nodded and left the office, still a bit confused. Nevertheless, he made his way to Luke’s section and waited by his desk as Luke finished typing something on his computer.

“Hey,” Luke greeted once he was done. He didn’t take his eyes away from his screen. “I just emailed you everything I have for the article, but if you need anything else, just let me know.”

“Thank you,” Louis said seriously.

“You’re welcome; it’s not a problem.”

“No, no. _Thank you_.”

Luke looked up at Louis’ tone. “You’re… _welcome_?”

“I just mean, Nick said that you chose me to work on this article, and I wanted to thank you for that. It means a lot.”

Luke nodded. “Look, Louis, after the whole thing with the councilman, I was kind of worried about having you on the team. But we all make mistakes, right? And I’m sure that’ll probably be the last big one you ever make.”

Louis readily agreed. “It will be.”

“You seem like a good dude, so why not give you the chance to write something? Show people – especially Nick – what you’re really made of, you know what I mean? You’ll be fine, man.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“You’re welcome. Now get writing; Nick doesn’t give extensions.”

Louis laughed. “Yeah. So I’ve heard.”

\---

Harry arrived at the newspaper office on Wednesday to find Eleanor pacing outside. She had her head ducked as she moved, and it took Harry too long to realize that she had her cell phone held up to her ear, deep in conversation.

As he approached, she glanced up at him and Harry stopped when he saw how concerned and saddened she looked.

“You OK?” he mouthed, not wanting to interrupt her conversation.

She nodded and held out her hand. “Phone,” she mouthed back.

Harry quickly dug his cell out of his back pocket and handed it over.

While Eleanor listened to whoever she was talking to on the line, she opened Harry’s phone and singlehandedly typed a message.

She passed it back a moment later, and Harry’s mouth dropped when he read the words ‘zayn and perrie broke up’ on the screen.

He looked back up to her and she immediately brought a single finger to her lips, telling him to keep it quiet.

Harry nodded and deleted the words in the text.

She raised her eyebrows at him before speaking into the phone, “Yeah, Pez; I’m still here.”

Not wanting to eavesdrop on the conversation anymore, Harry made his way into the building. He walked into his office, saying ‘hello’ to the people already inside.

When he sat down, he saw a few slips of paper for News and Entertainment pictures that needed to be edited, so he got to work.

About ten minutes later, Eleanor walked in. She sat down by his desk and patiently waited for him to finish. After he saved the picture he was working on, he turned to her and quietly asked, “They really broke up?”

She just nodded. “Yeah. Like, I’d been texting her the last few days, asking how their Valentine’s Day went. And she ignored all of my messages. She finally called me when I was walking over here. She was absolutely bawling her eyes out, and it took her a minute to actually tell me what happened.”

“What did happen?”

“Well, Perrie got accepted to Berkeley for grad school, but waitlisted at NYU.”

Harry sighed. “Oh, no.”

“Yeah. Needless to say, Zayn freaked out, and she got mad because it seemed like he just wanted to break up instead of fight for the relationship. She wanted to do long-distance, and even asked if he would consider moving to California to be with her when the time came. And he wouldn’t make a choice.”

Harry frowned. “That doesn’t sound like Zayn.”

“I said the same thing. But Perrie said that he told her that he didn’t want to have a long-distance relationship after seeing you and Louis almost get torn apart last semester, and he didn’t want to move to California because everyone he loves is here. And I understand that, but still… And he kept saying that they should wait to find out about the other schools Perrie applied to, but Perrie said that he would have to make a choice at some point, and he just didn’t; couldn’t just say that he wanted to be with her. So Perrie kicked him out.”

“Wow. I never thought that would happen to them.”

“Seriously. Has Louis mentioned anything to you about it?”

Harry shook his head. “No. This is the first I’m hearing about this.”

“OK. Maybe he doesn’t know yet… I’ll call him, then; tell him to go check on Zayn and see how he’s doing. He’s probably just as torn up about this as Perrie is. I just can’t believe he couldn’t make a decision.”

“Maybe he didn’t like being put on the spot like that,” Harry said. “You know what I mean? Like, that’s a big decision, and he probably should’ve been given time to figure it out.”

“True. But they’ve been together for nearly a year; he should know whether or not he wants to fight to stay in a relationship or not.”

“Also true.”

Eleanor put her hands up. “I don’t know; not my relationship. But don’t tell anybody else about this yet, OK?”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Thanks.”

She got up and went back out to the main room, and Harry returned to the pictures he was working on.

As he started on the next photo, Harry felt a sudden sense of guilt roll over him. El said that Zayn hadn’t wanted to do long-distance because of him and Louis.

Harry understood Zayn’s reasoning; he and Louis had been pretty bad last semester. It made sense that Zayn, as one of their best friends, would see that as an example of how distance could tear a relationship apart. But he also thought that Zayn shouldn’t use that as his only reason.

Harry shook his head and sighed. Like El had just said: it wasn’t his relationship. It wasn’t his place to judge.

\---

“It was just _so_ awesome, Li,” Louis gushed as he told Liam about his day.

The two of them were in the kitchen later that night, getting dinner ready. Well, Liam was at the stove, stirring the pasta as it cooked while Louis sat on the counter, swinging his legs back and forth.

“Like, it felt so good to be writing again, to be reading through notes and typing everything up. My head was spinning all day.”

“That’s so great, Lou,” Liam said. “I told you that it would happen; you just had to stick it out.”

“I’m so glad I did. God, I was starting to feel like I would never get anything to write and that I would just be a fact checker for the rest of my life.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Like you would allow that. I mean, you’re Louis Tomlinson. You probably would’ve just gone off and made your own newspaper if Nick didn’t eventually give you an article.”

Liam laughed. “Don’t think I never thought of that.”

“Well I’m glad it all worked out. I can’t wait to read it.”

“I mean, it’s nothing exciting. It’s just an update on the casinos. It’s not real groundbreaking material.”

“But still. _You_ wrote it. Of course I have to read it.”

“Thanks, Li.”

“You’re welcome.”

Before Louis could say anything else, he heard his phone start to vibrate.

“Hello?” he answered immediately, seeing who was calling.

“Hey, Lou,” Eleanor said. “What’re you up to?”

“Nothing really; just making dinner.”

He ignored Liam’s glare and eye roll and got comfortable where he sat.

“OK, cool. Um, can I talk to you about something, then?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Um, have you talked to Zayn lately?” El asked.

Louis thought the question over and realized that he actually hadn’t spoken to his friend in a while.

“Not in a couple days,” he answered. “Why? Is everything OK?”

“No. You should probably go see him. Liam, too. Perrie told me that the two of them broke up.”

Louis sat up straighter and shot a hand out to grab onto Liam’s arm.

Liam looked alarmed at Louis’ reaction and got closer to him. “What happened?” he whispered.

“Is that Liam?” El asked.

“Yeah, he’s here,” Louis told her. “When did this happen?”

“Sunday. They got into a massive fight because Perrie didn’t get into NYU, but she got into Berkeley.”

“Oh, shit.”

“What’s happening?” Liam pestered.

“Yeah, so if you want to go talk to him…” El suggested.

“No, we will. Definitely. Thanks for letting us know.”

“What are we doing?” Liam wondered.

“Thanks, Louis. I’ll let you guys get back to dinner. I’ll talk to you later.”

“OK. Talk to you later. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and Liam threw his arms up in the air. “What’s going on?”

“Zayn and Perrie broke up,” Louis told him as he jumped down from the counter.

“That’s not funny, Louis!” Liam called after him.

“It’s not supposed to be. Come on; we have to go talk to Zayn.”

Liam nodded. Luckily, the pasta was done, so he drained the water out of the pot, put the noodles in a plastic container and stored them in the fridge. They could eat them later.

The two of them quickly got ready and jumped in Liam’s car, headed toward Zayn’s house.

Louis called Zayn as they drove.

“Hello?” Zayn answered when he picked up.

“Hey, Z,” Louis said easily. “Where are you right now?”

“Home. What’s up?”

“Nothing much. Li and I were just gonna stop by, if that’s cool?”

“Yeah, that’s cool. See you in a few.”

“All right, see you.”

They pulled up a few minutes later, and Liam parked on the curb right behind Zayn’s truck. The porch light was on, which meant that the family knew they would be coming. Because of that, Louis walked right into the house, not bothering to knock.

“Hey, guys,” Zayn’s sister Waliyha said from her seat on the leather couch. She didn’t bother looking up at them as she flipped the page in the magazine she was reading. “Zayn’s in his room.”

“Thanks.”

The two of them started walking up the stairs, only to be stopped by Zayn’s mom, Trisha.

“Don’t come in here without saying ‘hello,’” she scolded them as she walked out of the kitchen.

Louis and Liam smiled, said ‘hello’ and went to give her a hug, as well.

“Can I get you boys anything?” she asked them when she stepped back.

“No, we’re good,” Liam told her. “Just wanted to see Zayn.”

“OK… Is everything all right?”

Louis and Liam exchanged a quick glance before Louis told her, “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”

Trisha nodded once. “OK. If you say so.”

They smiled again and went back to the staircase, going up to Zayn’s room.

“Z!” Louis called out, walking down the familiar hallway.

“Yo, boys!” Zayn yelled back.

They walked through Zayn’s open doorway and found Zayn lounging on his bed, scrolling through Facebook on his phone. Liam quietly shut the door behind him.

“How’s it going, man?” Louis asked, plopping down next to Zayn.

“It’s good. Nothing unusual to report. You?”

“Well, I wrote my first article today.”

“Sick! That’s awesome. What was it about?”

Louis shrugged. “Nothing big. It was just an update story on the casinos and how they’re trying to avoid going bankrupt. I only got it because the original writer had to work on something bigger.”

“Still, though,” Zayn said. “You got something. I’m proud of you, man!”

“Thanks, Z.”

“Liam, you’re awfully quiet over there,” Zayn noticed. “Anything new with you?”

“Nope,” Liam answered simply. “Nothing really.”

“OK… So, uh, to what do I owe this visit? I’m sure there’s something.”

Louis glanced at Liam, who just raised an eyebrow at him.

Louis cleared his throat. “Um, we know.”

“You know what?”

“About you and Perrie…”

Zayn nodded slowly. “Oh. I see.”

“Is it true?” Liam asked.

Zayn sighed and suddenly found great interest in his bedspread.

“Zayn?”

“Yeah, all right?” Zayn quickly looked back up at his friends. “It’s true. She, uh… She ended it.”

“What happened?” Louis wondered.

“Um, well she heard back from some of the schools she applied to, and, she got accepted to Berkeley, but waitlisted at NYU. Basically, she asked me what I wanted to do if she wound up going to Berkeley, whether or not I’d want to do long-distance or move out to California with her, and I just, froze. I- I couldn’t say anything.”

“She asked you to move to California?” Liam asked.

Zayn nodded. “Yeah. She said if I didn’t want to be across the country from her, then I could go with her, but I can’t do that. I mean, my life is here. I would miss everyone: my sisters, my mom and dad… Hell, I might even miss you guys.”

Louis shoved Zayn with his shoulder, but all three of them chuckled.

“That would be a huge step, though,” Louis said. “I mean, it’s one thing to move in together here, but to uproot your whole life?”

“I agree,” Zayn told him. “But the idea of being in a long-distance relationship is terrifying. I mean, I’d only see her for holidays and then for a few weeks or months while she’s on winter or summer break. And, Lou, I watched you and Harry deal with being long-distance and it nearly killed you. I don’t want that to happen to us.”

“Yeah, but we’re totally different, Z. God knows I love Harry, but his priorities were all out of whack last semester. We’re really good now.”

“And how do you know it won’t be the same for me and Pez? I mean, she’s doing _grad school._ It’s a little more difficult than a regular degree. If anything, it’ll be exactly the same as Harry overloading.”

“You don’t know that, though,” Liam cut in. “I mean, for all you know, she’s been talking to Niall and Josh about how they did it.”

“Yeah, but Liam, in either situation, they were only an hour apart. I looked it up. If Perrie goes to Berkeley, we’ll be forty hours apart by car. That’s 2,800 miles. We wouldn’t get any random visits or anything.”

“That’s what Skype is for. You’ll just have to set up times to talk and text each other all the time. I mean, you’re acting like not seeing her every day is the end of the world.”

Zayn scoffed. “No offense, Liam, but you’ve got no room to talk on this subject.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’ve never been more than a half hour away from your girlfriend.”

Liam shook his head. “That’s got nothing to do with it. In any relationship, you have to work at it and you have to make decisions based on the situations you’re put in. Sometimes it’ll suck, but it’ll all be worth it in the end if you stick it out and work together.”

“Again, Liam, no offense, because that all sounds great but…” he shrugged his shoulders. “You don’t have experience on this.”

Liam stiffened. “Yeah, well I’m about to. So why don’t you shut up and take some advice when it’s given to you?”

“What?” Zayn asked.

“Liam…” Louis warned.

“No,” Liam said. “Zayn, I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but there’s a possibility Dani is going to London. So actually, by the end of this summer, I could be in the exact same position as you. The only difference is, I didn’t run away from my girlfriend and leave her feeling like shit for wanting to go where she wants. I was supportive.”

“Hey, man, fuck you!” Zayn sat up in his bed and glared at Liam. “I’m plenty supportive! I told her I was proud of her for getting into grad school.”

“Just not the right one? She deserves to go anywhere she wants and you sitting there making her feel guilty for getting accepted to one that you hadn’t planned on is pretty shitty, if you ask me.”

“Well, I _didn’t_ ask you,” Zayn replied.

“Well tough luck,” Liam shot back, “because I’m _telling_ you that you need to get your head out of your ass and figure your shit out. If you don’t want to be with her anymore, then there’s your out right there. But if you wanted to stay with Perrie, then you should’ve told her that you were willing to make it work. I’m not excited at having to do long-distance, either, but I’m going to because I love Dani and I couldn’t be more proud of her for getting this opportunity. And honestly, I’m damn lucky she even wants to try being long-distance because, yeah, it’s a lot of fucking work, but it’ll be worth it because I still get to be with her.”

Zayn didn’t say anything, but Liam was shaking with how angry he’d gotten.

Louis took in his roommate’s appearance and calmly said, “Liam? Do you need a minute?”

Liam just shook his head as he slowly relaxed. “No. Shit. Zayn, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that.”

“No, you’re right,” Zayn told him. “Just, I need time to think about this. Whatever I decide is going to be huge.”

“That’s fair,” Liam said. He took another deep breath.

“Look, Z, we’re not here to tell you what to do with your relationship,” Louis spoke quietly. “We’re just trying to help.”

Zayn smiled softly. “I know you are. I just, I need to get this figured out on my own.”

Louis and Liam nodded.

A few minutes passed before any of them spoke again.

“I just don’t want her to resent me,” Zayn whispered.

Louis glanced at Liam before asking, “Why would she resent you?”

Zayn shrugged. “I don’t know, just… I feel like if she went to Berkeley and I stayed here, she’d always be annoyed that I didn’t go with her. But if I went with her, then she might hate that I followed her across the country like a sad puppy.”

“But she _asked_ you to move with her,” Liam reminded him.

“Maybe she wouldn’t feel that way now, but one day. Like, there’d always be the little thought in the back of her head asking what it would’ve been like to experience all of that by herself.”

“Or, she’ll always wonder what it would’ve been like to see the world _with you_ ,” Louis said. “I mean, you guys were in a relationship. She probably wanted to share all of that with you.”

“She said that, too,” Zayn admitted, thinking back to their argument.

“So why didn’t you believe her?”

“I don’t know. I just, I don’t know, OK?”

“OK,” Liam said, putting his hands up. He could tell Zayn was getting frustrated. “It’s all right. Like Louis said, we’re just trying to help.”

Zayn sighed. “I need to process this some more on my own first.”

Louis nodded. “OK.”

They sat in silence again, until Louis broke it with, “So Harry gave me roadhead the other day.”

Zayn groaned in annoyance, while Liam just said, “Jesus Christ, Louis.”

“What?” Louis asked innocently. “Had to break the silence somehow.”

“Not with that!” Liam told him.

“You’re the fucking worst,” Zayn mumbled.

Louis leaned over and smacked a kiss on Zayn’s cheek. “Love you, too, Zaynie.”

Zayn just rolled his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will most likely be posted Monday! I know! I've been doing so well lately! But I'll be out most of the day Sunday and may not have time to proofread. If that happens, the chapter will be posted Monday. <3


	25. Next Generation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so this one has a pretty decent time jump - about a month. Last chapter was mid-February, and this one is mid-March. But you'll meet the new editors in this chapter!  
> Also, one section of this story has some homophobic language. As I've done in the past, that part is marked off between double lines, so if you don't want to read it, just read up to the double lines and start reading again after the next set.

“Sorry, I’m late!” Niall called out as he walked into the office, bringing the other conversations to a halt. “ _Someone_ didn’t wake me up for the meeting.”

He glared at Harry across the table as he took his seat.

Harry frowned. “Who? Me?”

“Yeah, you. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You didn’t ask me to?”

“Of course I did!” Niall insisted. “I got back to the apartment because my class got cancelled and I yelled to you, ‘wake me up for the meeting!’ Then I went into my room and took a nap.”

“Niall, I wasn’t home.”

“What? Of course you were.”

“No, I wasn’t. I was at the library, working on a group project.”

“But… You’re always at the apartment before meetings.”

Harry sighed. “Not this time.”

“So who did I ask to wake me up?”

“Probably nobody. I think X has class right now, and Jake has lab. So…”

“So I yelled into an empty apartment for nobody to wake me up?”

Harry nodded. “Pretty much.”

“Oh. Oops. OK, then; let’s start this meeting.”

Dani shook her head as she listened to their back and forth, while El just stared at them.

“Well,” El said, clearing her throat, “that was, um… An experience. Anyway, shall we begin?”

The rest of the editors nodded, wanting to get done so they could leave. They didn’t have an issue out this week, as Spring Break officially started on Friday, but they needed to talk about replacement editors before leaving campus for a week.

“I’m just going to start,” Dani announced. “To replace me as Executive Editor, I picked Hurley.”

Hurley smiled widely as everyone turned to tell him ‘Congratulations.’

“Thanks, guys,” he said happily. “I’m nervous as hell, but I think KJ and I will do pretty well next year.”

He blushed once he realized what he’d just said. “Oops,” he told El.

She shrugged. “It’s OK. Guess that answers your question of who’ll be taking over for me. KJ will be the new Managing Editor!”

KJ laughed as everyone gave him quick words of encouragement.

“As much as I would’ve liked to make that announcement a little more suspenseful, I agree with Hurley,” he said. “We’re going to kill it next year.”

“So there you have it,” Dani said. “Hurley and KJ will be in charge next year. So, for the sections, we’re going to go to News first, then Features, Sports, Photos and finally Ads. Entertainment and Opinion, you’ll be unchanged next year, so, sorry! We’re skipping you.”

“It’s cool,” Tyler told her. “I’ll just get comfortable in my seat, then.”

Harry rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help but notice that Cher wore a similar expression.

“So, for News next year,” Leigh-Anne started, “both spots will be open, so we really went through our best writers to pick two people who could be a good team.”

Hurley continued with, “We picked Harper Grant, who’s a freshman Politics major and McKinley Vaughn, a sophomore Journalism major. Both of them have been very consistent this year, and McKinley started writing a little for Leigh-Anne last year.”

“Sounds great,” Dani said. “Features? KJ, who will be replacing you?”

“Uh, his name’s Brian Moore, and he’s a sophomore PR major. He’s been writing for me all year, and a few weeks ago, he actually asked me if there was a way to get more involved with the paper. So, I thought he’d be a good fit.”

“I like it. Next? Sports? What’s going on?”

Casey sighed and wiped a fake tear from the corner of her eye. “It was difficult, but we finally decided on someone who we both think will work well in the position.”

Niall snorted. “More like, I picked someone weeks ago and Casey waited until yesterday to tell me if she liked him or not.”

“Semantics. Anyway, we’re going with Mike Walsh, who’s a freshman Radio & TV major. He’s no Niall or Josh, but he’ll do.”

“There will never be another one like us,” Niall said sadly.

“I know.”

Dani rolled her eyes. “You guys are being a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

They both shook their heads slowly before looking away from her with a somber look on their faces.

“OK. Anyway… Mike Walsh in Sports. Cool. Harry, did you pick an assistant?”

“I did,” Harry answered. “Her name is Claire Robertson, and she’s a freshman Photography major. She’s been around since the first meeting this year, and she’s always been really reliable. She even got a new camera for Christmas, so she’s been even better.”

“Awesome,” El said. “Glad to see she takes it seriously.”

“She definitely does. She’ll be fine to take over for me in January.”

“Cool. And last, but not least, Ads! Who have you picked?”

Jade spoke first. “I chose Laura Kerr, and she’s a junior Journalism major.”

“I picked Greg Fitzgerald, who’s a sophomore Advertising major,” Jesy said. “They’ll both be good and they’re both excited to take on the job.”

Dani smiled widely. “OK, so that’s it. Everyone is picked! I didn’t think we’d get here, guys-”

Eleanor coughed, interrupting her. “Speak for yourself. You were the only one who was nervous.”

“-but we did!” Dani finished, ignoring El’s comment entirely. “Now, if there weren’t any other questions, we can go.”

Nobody spoke, or looked like they were going to.

“OK, then let your replacements know to join us here at 4:30 in two weeks on the day we come from Spring Break. We can do quick introductions and show them how meetings are run. Have a good break, everyone.”

With those words, everyone stood up and pushed their chairs in.

Harry looked at Niall and said, “OK, _now_ I’m going back to the apartment since we have time before night class. Do you want to take another nap? I promise I’ll wake you up this time. You know, since I’ll actually be there.”

Niall glared at Harry for a moment.

“Well?” Harry asked, waiting for an answer.

Niall sighed. “Yeah, that would be nice. Thanks.”

Harry grinned. “Of course. What are good roommates for?”

\---

* * *

* * *

Harry got to his Communication Theory class really early on Thursday; so early that the class that met in the room before them hadn’t been dismissed yet.

Harry leaned up against the wall across from the classroom’s closed door. He took out his phone and started scrolling through his Facebook.

He couldn’t wait for this class to be over. He only had one tomorrow, and then he would be on break. He planned on spending a week at his mom’s house and then next weekend at Louis’ apartment.

Which reminded him, he _had_ to tell his mom that he was moving in with Louis after the summer. He’d been putting it off for a while, since he didn’t know how his mom would react. He was sure she wouldn’t be upset, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be thrilled about the news that her baby was leaving the nest.

He was so absorbed by his phone that he didn’t notice the person creeping up next to him until it was too late.

“You ready for the break, Harry?” someone asked.

Harry looked up to see that it was Spencer. Great.

Harry nodded before returning his attention to his phone. “Yup.”

“Got plans with that boyfriend of yours?”

Harry glanced over at Spencer. “Yeah. So what if I do?”

“Hey, calm down, man. I was just asking.”

Spencer put his hands up like he was surrendering, like Harry was the bad guy who was overreacting.

Harry turned his gaze to look straight ahead. Through the glass window of the classroom door, he could see some students starting to pack up their things.

“Are you the guy or the girl, Styles?”

“Excuse me?” Harry turned his body to look completely at Spencer. Now he was annoyed.

“You know; are you a giver… or a taker?”

Harry clenched his jaw. He could feel his chest start to rise and fall more quickly and his heart rate had picked up significantly, as well.

“Oh, you’re the girl, aren’t you?”

“Why the fuck do you care? Because besides being an extremely gross, rude question, it’s also an invasion of privacy. We’re also not friends, so I don’t know what could possibly possess you to ask such a question.”

“Yeah, definitely the girl,” Spencer muttered under his breath.

“Oh, fuck you!” Harry spat.

“Whoa, no thanks, man. I’m not into that gay shit.”

“That _gay shit_? You mean sex?”

“If that’s what you want to call it, two guys going at it. Sure.”

“You know, for someone who’s not into _that gay shit_ , you sure do like to talk about it. Were you looking for some tips on it? Here’s one: always use lube. Even if you think you don’t need it, you do.”

By now, a few of their classmates had joined them outside of the room. That didn’t stop Spencer, though, who simply lowered his voice.

“Bet you know all about lube, Styles,” Spencer sneered. “Got to get yourself all ready for your boyfriend, right?”

“Again; awfully interested in sex that you’re not having. Is there something you want to tell me? Having a sexuality crisis over there?”

Spencer scoffed. “You wish.”

Harry shook his head, gearing up to say something back, but he never got the chance. The door opened then, and students began filing out. Once the room was emptied, some of Harry’s classmates made their way inside.

“After you, Princess,” Spencer said. He gestured for Harry to go first.

Harry clenched his jaw and shook his head again before walking into the room. He sat down in his usual seat, and much to his chagrin, Spencer sat behind him like he usually did.

Thankfully, Spencer didn’t feel the need to continue their conversation, and instead, started talking to someone who sat next to him. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. A few minutes later, Niall came strolling in and sat down in the seat next to Harry.

He shot Harry a smile before taking out his textbook.

Harry just tried to get his mind off what had happened. It hadn’t been the first time Spencer had said something gross to him, but it had certainly been the first time Harry had gotten so wound up from it. Little comments of ‘kind of feminine, don’t you think?’, ‘you would be the kind of fag to like that’ and other stupid things had gone ignored for the last few weeks, but this had also been the first time Spencer and Harry had been really alone. Of course Spencer took the chance to spew some nasty, homophobic shit.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to listen to what his professor was saying.

Niall glanced over at him and mouthed, ‘You OK?’

Harry nodded and gave him a quick thumbs-up. Spring break couldn’t get here soon enough.

\---

* * *

* * *

When Perrie left her job on Saturday, the last person she expected to see was Zayn.

At first, she thought it was some kind of figment of her imagination, maybe an illusion because they hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks. But no, sure enough, there he was, leaned up against the trunk of her car, staring off into the distance.

She approached him carefully, not knowing whether or not he would say anything, or was going to wait for her to make the first move.

Surprisingly, he spoke up once she was a few feet away.

“Hey,” he said simply.

“Hi.”

"Your mom told me you were here."

Well that answered Perrie's question. "Oh." 

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been good,” she answered. “You?”

“I’m doing all right. I’ve, uh, been doing a lot of thinking.”

“About?”

“You. Us.”

Perrie nodded, but remained silent.

“Listen… Pez, I-”

“I got into Northwestern,” she blurted out.

It caught him off-guard. “What?”

“Northwestern, in Chicago. I got accepted.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“I didn’t get into Syracuse. And I haven’t heard anything else from NYU.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Perrie said. “So, I’m going to either Berkeley or Chicago in September. New York’s no longer an option.”

“OK. Well, that doesn’t change anything.”

“You’re right; it doesn’t. Now the choice really is: long-distance or move with me. And since you couldn’t make a decision almost a month ago, I don’t have much confidence that you’ll be able to now.”

“I want to do long-distance,” Zayn told her.

Perrie’s jaw dropped. “Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve, uh, been talking to Niall and Josh and Harry and Louis, trying to figure out how they made it work without seeing other that often. And, of course, we would see each other less than they see each other, but still… The lessons remain the same.”

Perrie smiled. “The boys gave you lessons on being in a long-distance relationship?”

“Well someone had to!” Zayn laughed; he’d missed the happy expression on Perrie’s face.

“So tell me some of these lessons, then.”

Perrie lifted herself up to sit on the trunk of her car, giving Zayn her full attention.

“Well, Harry said that you’re going to be really busy, so I shouldn’t pressure you too much to talk if you say you’re busy, _but_ if you’re too busy for too long, then I need to intervene so you don’t stress yourself out. And I should offer to help you study for tests if I can, as a way to show that I care.”

Perrie nodded. “OK, sounds good.”

“Josh suggested sending random pictures to you throughout the day of little things that remind me of you or of something we’ve done together. They’ll be a way to show that I’m thinking of you. Niall said we should send dirty pictures to each other.”

Perrie snorted. “That sounds like Niall.”

“Basically. And, uh, Louis- Louis told me that above everything, be supportive. I have to understand that your stress isn’t anything that I can really help apart from the occasional study session, or even just listening to you rant about your professors and your homework. I shouldn’t guilt trip you if you accidentally fall asleep while we’re on the phone or if you miss a scheduled Skype time because a class runs late; you’ll probably feel bad enough about it as it is. And finally, just remember why we’re doing this: because I love you, and you love me, too.”

Perrie smiled softly. “And you’re really sure you want to do this? You’re positive?”

“Never been so sure of anything,” Zayn answered. “I swear.”

With a small squeal, Perrie jumped down from her car and pulled Zayn close to her.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you, too. And I’m sorry.”

“It’s OK. Don’t do it again, though.”

Zayn smiled. “Don’t worry; I won’t.”

He leaned in, giving her a soft kiss.

He dropped his hands to Perrie’s hips, giving them a tight squeeze. “So about Niall’s suggestion… I mean, we don’t even have to wait until you leave. We could start that later.”

Perrie let out a loud laugh and wrapped her arms even tighter around Zayn.

“I missed you,” she honestly admitted.

“I missed you, too.”

As Perrie relaxed into Zayn’s embrace, she knew they would be all right.

\---

“And then, when you’re big enough to stand, I’ll show you how to kick a soccer ball around.”

Harry snorted from his spot on the floor. He was sitting on the cream-colored carpet and leaning up against Doris’ crib, holding her closely to him. He looked up at his boyfriend, who was walking around, carrying Ernest in his arms.

“Louis, relax with the soccer talk, will you?” Harry said. “They’ve only been home for a few days. You have a lot of time to train them.”

“Harry, I’ve waited twenty-three years to have a little brother. None of my sisters were interested in soccer, or any other sport for that matter, past the age of seven. Damn Barbies and tea parties took over and they never looked back. You better believe that I’m starting early with this one.”

“And what if he doesn’t like soccer?” Harry asked gently.

Louis stopped moving and fixed Harry with a grumpy stare. “Take that back!”

Harry rolled his eyes and looked down at Doris. “Protect your brother from your older brother, OK?”

Doris was fast asleep, and had been for the last ten minutes. That didn’t mean Harry was going to stop holding her, though. She was too cute for that.

Louis pouted. “Forgive me if I want to teach _someone_ my soccer knowledge.”

“Well, what if Doris turns out to be the soccer star?” Harry asked.

“Then I’ll have two trainees!”

Harry chuckled. “You’re so excited about this, aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

Louis gently sat down next to Harry, careful not to wake Doris, or disturb Ernest, who was slowly drifting off, as well.

“I love babies,” Louis continued. “I love kids, in general. And my sisters are cool, of course, but these ones… There’s a whole world of information they still have to learn. And now that I’m older, I get to be the one to really teach them.”

“You taught your sisters plenty.”

“Yeah, now. But I was a kid when they were all born. Now I’m an adult. Like, a real adult who has his own place and votes in national elections.”

“What about general elections?” Harry wondered.

Louis shook his head. “Not important. Anyway, I consider this good practice for when I have my own kids. Just putting that out there.”

Harry smiled. “You want kids one day?”

“Hell, yeah. Uh-oh. Do you not?” He let out a low whistle. “This could be a deal breaker right here.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “We might be over if you don’t know me well enough that I definitely want to be a dad one day.”

Louis winked. “Nah, I knew as much. I’m not totally oblivious.”

Harry hummed in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything else.

They sat quietly for a few moments, watching the tiny babies in their arms slowly breathe in and out.

The twins had been in the hospital for nearly six weeks before finally getting clearance to come home. Louis could honestly say he’d never seen his mom cry as much as she had when they found out.

And now, on the last day of Harry’s spring break, the two of them were watching the babies to give Jay and Dan a much-needed nap. Louis had been only slightly offended when his mom had tried to show Louis how to prepare their bottles, as if he didn’t remember from the last four kids.

“Hey, remember when you started hyperventilating when you found out your mom was pregnant?” Harry asked.

Louis shook his head. “Nope; doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Oh, really? What about when you nearly had a panic attack when your mom went into labor because you thought you really weren’t going to get a brother after all?”

“No… Doesn’t ring a bell, either.”

“Louis!” Harry hissed.

“OK, fine.” Louis sighed. “Yeah, I remember. What’s your point?”

“Didn’t have one, really. Just wanted to remind you of how much of a basket case you were.”

Louis stared at Harry. “I hate you,” he finally whispered.

Harry raised an eyebrow. “And yet… You just brought up the topic of children to me. I don’t think you hate me all that much.”

Louis smiled. “Maybe not that much.”

He leaned over, kissing Harry softly on the lips.

“We need a picture,” Louis decided. He carefully slid his phone out of his jeans pocket and turned on the front camera.

He angled the phone so he could see all four of them on the screen and said, “Smile.”

Harry did as he was instructed, and sat perfectly still until Louis took the picture.

“Good?” Louis asked, showing Harry the screen.

“Good. You know, when I move in, we’ll have to print that out and hang it somewhere. It’s a nice one.”

If possible, Louis’ smile got even wider. “I can’t believe you’re moving in.”

The two of them had decided that Harry would go back home after the semester ended and go through all of his stuff to see what he wanted to bring to Louis’ apartment, which would then become _his_ apartment, at the end of August, right before he would’ve had to move back to school anyway to work on the first issue of the paper.

Neither of their families was particularly surprised to hear the news. Anne had even asked Harry if he was sure he wanted to return home at all. Harry hadn’t been sure if he should be offended at that or not.

“Really?” Harry asked. “I kind of assumed it would happen at some point. Maybe not so soon, but hey… The best things in life are unexpected. Right? Isn’t that a saying?”

“It can be, if you want it to.”

Harry moved in for another quick kiss.

“So,” Louis said when they separated, “you have less than two months until the end of the semester.”

“Yup. Niall texted me on Tuesday saying that he had eight weeks until he graduated, so it’s a little less than that now.”

“What should we do to celebrate?”

Harry frowned. “Why are we celebrating? I’m not graduating.”

“I don’t know; to celebrate the end of the school year? Preparing to move in together? We didn’t actually do anything for our anniversary, so it could be a belated one-year celebration.”

“Oh, OK! Um, well, we could go back to Atlantic City. Spend the weekend, hit the beach and do some more gambling. Or, we could go to New York and see something on Broadway. Or… We could do a road trip! Like, Baltimore or something. That’s not that far from here.”

Louis nodded, listening to Harry’s suggestions. “All good choices. We’ll have to figure something out.”

“Sounds good.”

Just then, both babies started shifting around. Doris’ mouth opened widely in a yawn, and Harry and Louis held their breath, waiting to see if either twin would wake up.

Luckily, they both returned to their comfortable positions and continued dozing.

Harry and Louis sighed in relief, but didn’t say anything more so they wouldn’t disturb the babies.

Louis had been trained long ago to never wake a sleeping baby.

\---

Harry checked his phone again. It was only 4:25, so Claire still had time. Harry was outside of the office, leaning back against the wall behind him. He told her that he would wait for her to show up so that the two of them could walk in together.

Today was the first meeting with all of the new editors, and Harry couldn’t wait to officially meet the new people who would soon be taking over.

“Hi, Harry!”

He stepped away from the wall and look around, seeing Claire hurrying up to him.

“Hey,” he said with a smile. “Just in time.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I sort of, um, forgot that I had to be here by 4:30, not 5:30.”

“It’s OK. It takes some getting used to. You ready?”

Claire nodded, and the two of them went inside.

“Hello, everyone,” Harry greeted as he pushed the door open.

The room was already full, as the other editors were already there. Harry was momentarily caught off-guard when he saw that there were nearly twice as many people as usual.

Harry grabbed Cher’s computer chair and rolled it over to the editors’ table so that Claire could sit next to him.

“Did I say you could use my chair?” Cher asked as Claire sat down in it.

Harry stared at her for a moment before simply shooting her a big smile.

Cher rolled her eyes. “If it weren’t for those dimples, Styles, I’d be a lot more annoyed.”

“But I do have those dimples, so…”

“Shut up and talk to your trainee.”

Harry just chuckled before turning back to Claire, who looked a bit nervous to be at the table.

“OK, so it’s pretty simple,” Harry began. “Honestly, we spend most of the meeting listening to the other editors talk. They go through each of their stories and let us know if that story needs photos. If it’s for an event, then they tell us when and where the event is. If they’re looking for a specific photo, they’ll tell us that, too.”

Claire nodded. “OK, and is that when you let the photographers know what to do?”

“Pretty much. By this point in the year, I know who prefers what. Like, I have steady sports people, and some who like going to see guest speakers or art exhibits. If they show up to the meeting, I’ll give them all of the information then, but if they don’t – and they normally don’t, which you’ve probably noticed in previous meetings – then I’ll email them with the details. Depending on how soon the event is, I’ll give them until the morning to respond, and then I send out a mass email to all of my photographers to find someone who can cover the event. But they’re usually pretty good about responding quickly.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear.”

“Tell me about it,” Harry said. “There’s nothing worse than waiting to hear back from a photographer, finding out last minute that they can’t cover the event and then having to rush to photograph it yourself.”

“OK, everybody, if I could have your attention, please?” Dani called out from the head of the table.

The conversations in the room quickly quieted down, and everyone listened to what Dani was going to say.

“OK, so as you can see, this table is a lot more crowded than it has been this year. I want to say a warm welcome to all of our new editors. I haven’t gotten the chance to personally meet all of you yet, but I’m looking forward to changing that tonight. Basically, what’s going to happen here is that we’re going to go around and introduce everyone who will be brand new this coming fall. You can keep it simple, and just tell us your name, year, major and possible plans for the future. After that, we’re going to do a run through of what a Monday meeting generally entails. So, I think we’re ready to start. We always begin with News, so, News, you’re up.”

The two incoming News editors looked at each other, unsure of who should start. After a second, the girl on the left sat up a bit straighter and gave a small wave.

“Um, hi. I’m McKinley Vaughn, and I’m a sophomore Journalism major. I actually live pretty local; my house is only about five minutes away, so I’m a commuter. One day, I want to write for a newspaper; maybe a bigger one like _The Philadelphia Inquirer_ or something. But we’ll see.”

Dani smiled. "Cool." She turned to the other girl and said, “So if she’s McKinley, that must make you Harper.”

“That’s right. Hi, I’m Harper Grant, and I’m a freshman Politics major. My dad actually used to be a political analyst for CNN, so I want to follow in his footsteps and continue that legacy. It’s a big dream and will require a shit-ton of work, but hopefully I’ll make it there.”

Niall chuckled. “Nice choice of words. ‘Shit-ton’ and ‘CNN’ in the same thought. Very professional.”

Harper laughed right along with the other editors. “Yeah. I thought so.”

“OK, Features’ turn,” Eleanor said once they all quieted down. “Brian?"

“What’s up, guys? I’m Brian Moore, and I’ll be taking over for KJ,” he greeted everyone. “I’m a sophomore PR major. I love getting to know people and writing feature stories on them. One day, I would like to do PR for a big company, or maybe even a celebrity. We’ll see what happens.”

El nodded. “Nice; very nice. Sports?”

“Hey, I’m Mike Walsh, and I’m a freshman Radio & TV Major. I want to be a sports broadcaster one day. My favorite sport is hockey, but I also like a bit of football and soccer, too.”

“Thanks, Mike,” Dani said. “Photos?”

Claire leaned forward a little before speaking. “My name is Claire Robertson, and I’ll be Harry’s assistant next semester before taking over for him in January. Right now, I’m a freshman and I’m majoring in Photography. I just really like taking pictures and finding new angles to capture something. In the future, I would like to work as a photographer for a newspaper or maybe for a news station, working behind the camera. I’m not totally sure yet.”

“Which is totally fine,” El told her. “Don’t have to have it all figured out just yet; you still have time.”

Claire smiled and sat back in her seat.

“And last, but not least, we have two new Advertising Managers. Laura and Greg? If you wouldn’t mind?”

Laura began. “My name’s Laura Kerr, and I’m a junior Journalism major. I would love to write for a magazine one day, so, fingers crossed that actually happens.”

When she was done, she turned to Greg, who sat beside her.

“And I’m Greg Fitzgerald; I’m a sophomore Advertising major, with a Marketing minor. I’ve actually been thinking about getting into commercials, and producing them for either television or movies.”

“OK,” Dani said with a clap of her hands. "So, everybody’s introduced. Now, for the second part of today. We’re going to go through a standard Monday meeting. This is what happens at 4:30, before the writers arrive. New editors, watch your outgoing editors very closely: see how they talk about a story and how they describe it, how they come up with what photos they’ll need and also, what notes they may take, if any. And then, 5:30 will be something you’re familiar with: the writers’ meeting. Watch how your outgoing editors talk to other writers and offer guidance and assistance. Any questions?”

Mike quickly raised his hand.

“Yeah?” Dani asked.

“Um, so since we’re like, editors-in-training or whatever, does that mean that we get pizza first?”

Everybody started laughing, and Niall clapped Mike on the back.

“I knew I picked the right person!” he said over the noise of the rest of the editors.

El just shook her head. “Yes, you’ll get pizza first. I actually called for more pizza than I usually do, just in case.”

“Yes!” Mike whispered.

“Were there any _real_ questions?” Dani asked, even though she had a huge smile on her face, as well.

Nobody around the table looked like they had one.

“Perfect. In that case, let’s get started. News, take it away.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you didn't read the section between the double lines, it had to do with Spencer, the homophobic guy in Harry's Comm Theory class, the one he also has with Niall. That'll come up again later in the story, but you don't have to read this part to understand what happens later.
> 
> Next chapter will be delayed! I had to go and pick this week to be super social and go out every night. Sorry, kids. I'll post again ASAP.


	26. Moving On Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Just... life.  
> This chapter is a bit shorter than usual chapters. I was rearranging my plotline, and something that was supposed to be in this chapter has gotten pushed back. So the next chapter should be back to normal.  
> Anyway, enjoy!

On Tuesday afternoon, Harry sat in his Communication Theory class with his laptop propped open and his fingers hovering over the trackpad.

But he wasn’t taking notes or working on his presentation like he was technically supposed to. Instead, he had Chrome open, displaying the school’s course selection page. For the last time of his college career – unless he, for whatever reason, chose to go to grad school – he would be picking his classes for the following semester.

Dr. James hadn’t even bothered planning anything for today, since she knew the juniors, which took up about half of the class, would be doing the same thing as Harry. So, she’d declared it a ‘work day,’ and attendance wasn’t optional. Since final presentations were due to start in two weeks, it was actually good to have time in class to prepare and ask her questions if necessary.

Harry’s presentation was nearly finished. His was on the Organizational Information Theory, which basically stated that it was best to go to a credible, reliable source when seeking information. Harry planned on using his own experience with the paper as a steady display of how the theory worked, with examples of asking the Sports Editors for information on the score of the latest soccer game, or the News editor for information about a new faculty member.

It was easy, and Harry counted his lucky stars that he was assigned that particular theory, which had been given at random.

He only had a minute left until he could press ‘Submit.’ He wasn’t too worried about his classes, as they were all upper level ones, and he would only be competing against fellow incoming seniors for them. He really hoped he got everything he selected, though, because if he got the current schedule he had in front of him, then he wouldn’t have class on Fridays next semester, which would be amazing.

He secretly hoped he could convince Louis to take a few long weekends in the fall.

As soon as the clock read 4:30, he hurriedly clicked, and held his breath as he heard about fifteen other people do the same.

A moment later, the next screen loaded up, and a big ‘Congratulations!’ sat at the top.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He was done; his final semester of college was selected and finalized, his housing was taken care of – not that Harry spent hours daydreaming about it or anything – and he only had five classes, with Fridays off, between him and his degree.

Life was pretty good at the moment.

“Everything all right?” Niall asked from his seat beside him.

Harry nodded. “Yup. Five classes, all picked. Fridays off.”

“Nice.”

Harry grinned. “We’ll have to do Fridays in the city or something.”

“I’m up for that; God knows I’ll need something to get me out of the house once I move back in with my parents after graduation.” He sighed loudly, getting a few glances from the excited juniors on the other side of him.

“You can’t be that disappointed to be moving back in,” Harry said. “I mean, you like your parents, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. It’s really not the ‘living with my parents’ thing that I don’t like. It’s just… I’ve gone the last four years living mostly on my own, the last two of which I’ve spent in an apartment. And now I have to go back with no guarantee of ever moving back out. It just sucks, is all.”

“You’ll move out, Ni. Just maybe not right away.”

“You can be optimistic like that: you’re moving into an apartment with your boyfriend when it’s time to go back to school, and you’ll be there for a while.”

“So find out if Josh wants to get a place together.”

Niall scoffed. “Yeah, right. If Josh and I moved in together now, it would have to be somewhere near Philly. And I’m not willing to make that kind of sacrifice yet.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Come on, New York. You can honestly say that you wouldn’t be a Philly kid for a little while if it meant escaping your parents’ house?”

“Yeah, I can honestly say that. I have some pride, and we both know that New York is the superior city in a New York versus Philadelphia debate.”

“I don’t know… I mean, Philly has us pretty beat on cheesesteaks. And I’ve gotten pretty fond of South Street. And how could I forget the [Gayborhood](http://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/bars-and-nightlife-in-philadelphias-gayborhood/#sm.00007j8xyqpoyedduan2jn8o5ghf1)?”

Niall gasped. “Harry Styles, don’t _even_ tell me that you’ve gone over to the dark side!”

“Of course not. I’ll always say that Manhattan is the better city, but you have to admit that Philly has some checks in the ‘Pro’ column.”

“I guess. Speaking of the Gayborhood, we need to go to [Woody’s](http://www.woodysbar.com/index.php). Definitely this summer.”

Harry quickly nodded. “We’ll make a weekend out of it or something.”

“Deal.”

A few minutes later, Niall got up to ask their professor something. Almost immediately, Harry heard a question at his ear.

“ _You would_ pick a bar called Woody’s to go to.”

Harry rolled his eyes and sat up straighter in his seat, planning on ignoring Spencer’s idiocy. He looked at his presentation and started to go over it some more before they were dismissed for the day.

“Aww, what’s the matter, Princess?” Spencer mocked. “No quick comebacks today?”

Harry took a deep breath, trying to steady his breathing and keep himself from turning around.

“I’m disappointed, Princess. What’s the matter? Your boyfriend mad at you or something?”

Already annoyed with himself, Harry turned around. “Is there something you needed, Spencer?”

“No.” Spencer smiled widely. “Not really.”

Harry nodded once. “Awesome.”

He turned to face the front of the room again. At that moment, Niall returned to his seat.

“You OK?” he whispered, noticing Harry’s tense form.

Harry nodded again. “Yeah.”

Niall stared at Harry, knowing that was a lie. His eyes briefly flickered over to Spencer, who shot him a quick smile, but he let it go. “All right. If you say so.”

“Yup.”

Harry tried to keep his attention on his computer screen, but that was nearly impossible since he felt like screaming at the scumbag guy behind him.

This semester couldn’t be over fast enough.

\---

The next day, Harry was in a much better mood. He sat in his office with Claire, and they were about to begin her training.

“OK, so everything is extremely organized,” Harry started saying. “Everything has a folder and it’s all sorted by date.”

Harry grabbed his mouse and clicked something on the screen.

“Are you familiar with Macs?” he asked.

Claire shook her head. “No; not really.”

“That’s OK. First off, in the office, we have a server, which is basically a shared hard drive between all of the computers. I save a picture to the server, and anyone else in the office can access it. That’s how the other editors get the photos after I adjust them.”

Harry opened a folder simply called ‘Photos.’ “So, there’s a folder for every issue of the paper. This week, we’re working in this one.”

Harry clicked on the one labeled 2015-03-27 and opened it. Inside were five additional folders: News, Features, Entertainment, Opinion and Sports.

“Each section has its own spot to save its pictures. Usually, the Opinion one is empty, but every now and then, Cher has a picture on one of her pages. And then, in the folder for each section, there’s a spot to save the pictures I get right when they come in, and a second spot to save the photos once they’re adjusted.”

Harry opened the News folder to show two final ones: New and Edited.

“The editors come in after looking through the photos and tell me which ones they want to use in their section. They write down the number of that picture and what size it needs to be to fit their page. I go into the New folder, fix it and then save it to the Edited folder so they can use it.”

“This is probably a really dumb question, but, what exactly are we editing?” Claire asked.

Harry shook his head. “It’s not a dumb question. For a lot of the pictures, we have to mess with the look of it, and make it brighter. For Sports or News, we usually have to crop out some side stuff to focus more on a specific part of the photo. But for all of the pictures, we have to make sure the color is right. We use Photoshop to do it all, and in Photoshop, there are two main color modes that the pictures can be edited in: RGB and CMYK. You _have_ to make sure that all photos are saved and edited with CMYK colors, not RGB, otherwise, they won’t print out with the rest of the page.”

Claire looked confused. “Why?”

Harry shrugged. “Not sure exactly. It has something to do with the color pixels in RGB. CMYK is the one for printing. Just remember that and you’re good.”

Claire nodded. “OK. I think I can handle that.”

“It gets easier the more you do it. But, if you ever get confused, you can look up here.”

Harry pointed to the corkboard on the wall next to them. “Up there, I have the checklist of everything to do while editing pictures. So, if I’m not here and you have a question, you can look up there to make sure you’re doing everything right.”

Claire stood up and examined the board. It had about a dozen sheets of paper tacked to it, and each one had specific instructions or reminders of what to do.

Harry waited as Claire read. He looked through the papers already on his desk of photos that needed to be edited.

“Hey, Harry?” Claire asked cautiously.

“Yeah?”

“Who’s Louis?”

Harry looked up quickly, and saw that Claire was looking at the card that Louis had sent with the flowers he’d had delivered to the office months ago, as well as the handwritten message from Louis on the wall that had faded and been traced over more than a few times since May.

“Louis’ my boyfriend,” Harry answered simply.

Claire glanced down at Harry with a soft smile. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”

She sat back down in her seat as Harry nodded.

“Yeah.”

“He seems like a real romantic. What’s he like? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

“Don’t get him started; you’ll be here all day.”

The two of them looked toward the door and saw Niall leaning in the open doorframe.

“Shut up, Irish,” Harry said, attempting to sound threatening.

Niall snorted. “OK. Anyway, can you fix these photos for me?”

Harry took a piece of paper from Niall and read it over.

“What are these? Baseball?” Harry asked.

“Yup. Thanks.”

Niall walked back out of the room and Harry showed Claire the paper.

“See here? Niall wrote the picture, which is IMG7362, and then he wrote the size of the box on his page so I know how big to make the picture. So let’s start with this one. Like I said before, you’ll go into Sports for this Friday's date and go into the New folder.”

Harry slowly did just that, letting Claire watch each move he made.

“Then, you have to look through the pictures and find the one you’re looking for.”

Harry scrolled down to the image that Niall wanted. Then he clicked on the picture, and dragged it down to the Photoshop icon at the bottom of the screen.

While they waited for it to load, Claire cleared her throat.

“So, Louis?” she asked.

Harry responded by grinning widely.

“Louis, is…” Harry started, trying to find something accurate enough to describe his boyfriend. “Well, he’s, um, everything to me, I guess. He’s the first person I want to talk to when something happens in my life, good or bad, and the last person I think about at night. He’s honest and caring and considerate and just, so, _so_ supportive. He says a lot of ridiculous things and can be _extremely_ stubborn, but I love him, so…”

“Have you been together long?”

“Just celebrated our first anniversary a few weeks ago, actually. Well, not really ‘celebrated,’ I mean, we didn’t do anything – just hung out and watched movies. But yeah, a year. I’m moving in with him in September.”

Claire’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? That’s awesome!”

“Yeah, it was easier than finding a place to live for just one semester, you know? He actually shares his apartment with our friend Liam, so it’ll be the three of us, but I’m excited.”

“You should be excited,” Claire said. “That sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun.”

“I think it will be.”

They heard a knock and both turned to see Tyler standing there.

“Hey,” Tyler greeted them. “Um, Harry can you-?”

“Yup.” Harry didn’t let Tyler finish his question, and just snatched the slip of paper in his hand.

“Thanks,” Tyler muttered before turning quickly around and leaving them alone again.

“What was that all about?” Claire asked when it looked like Harry wasn’t going to make an attempt to explain.

“That… Is a story for another day,” Harry answered easily.

He smiled at her, hoping to ease some of the tension that had formed when Tyler was in their presence.

“Now come on,” he said. “Let’s get these pictures done so we can sit around for a little while and do nothing.”

Claire smiled. “Deal.”

\---

Out in the main office, more training was already underway.

“So, you’re looking for grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes, of course,” Eleanor said to KJ. “You want to find sentences that could be phrased better or places where more information could be provided. If you have any questions about it, write it in the margins, because if you have a question about it, then someone reading this probably does, too.”

KJ nodded, listening to everything El was saying. Brian, the person who would be taking over Features from KJ, had a night class on Wednesdays, so he wouldn’t be able to come into the office until tomorrow.

“Basically, it’s what you’re doing all the time anyway,” El said, “only, you’ll be doing it over and over and over again for every section of the paper. As you’ve already seen, this is mostly what Wednesdays are for, and sometimes we’re needed to help with brainstorming, coming up with titles or captions, that sort of thing. The real work comes on Thursday nights, to be honest.”

“Got it.”

El smiled. “Can’t believe I’m training you for another position for the second year in a row. I must be doing something right.”

KJ scoffed. “You’re clearly the best, El.”

“And don’t you forget that. Now pick a section and start reading. Don’t forget to put your initials at the top of the page when you’re done.”

KJ nodded and grabbed a pen from the cup on the table. Then he grabbed the Opinion page and started reading.

Hurley was still working on the News section, so Dani wasn’t currently training him. That also gave her time to read through some more pages.

A few minutes later, her phone started ringing. It was an unknown number, but she answered anyway.

“Hello?” Dani spoke into the phone.

“Yes, this call is for Danielle Peazer. Is she available?”

“Hi, this is Danielle.”

“Good evening, Danielle. This is Hailey Rowell, and I’m one of the casting directors for STOMP. How are you tonight?”

Dani froze. “Uh… Um, I’m good. Thank you.”

Hailey chuckled. “That’s great to hear. Listen, I’m sure you’re very busy, but I just wanted to say that we received your audition tape and we were wondering if you might be available to come in to meet with us in person?”

Dani’s jaw dropped and she immediately pinched her thigh to make sure she was really awake.

She hissed when she grabbed a particularly sensitive patch of skin, and hoped Hailey didn’t hear it over the phone.

“I- I would absolutely be honored to. Of course.”

“Wonderful. How is next Saturday for you? It’s April fourth.”

“That’s perfect!” Dani wasn’t even going to bother to check her calendar to make sure she was free on the date. There was nothing else that was as important as this.

“Great. What will happen is you’ll come in and meet with either me or one of our other casting directors. After that, we’ll show you a brief choreo and see how well you do replicating it. It really won’t be that hard; nothing to stress yourself out over.”

_Yeah, only the rest of my future._

Dani didn’t say that part out loud, though.

“I’ll e-mail you the details later on this evening, and if you have any questions, of course feel free to call or e-mail us back, OK?” Hailey told her.

“Absolutely. Thank you so much for this opportunity,” Dani said.

“You’re welcome. We’ll see you on the fourth.”

“Yes, see you then. Have a great day.”

“Thank you. You do the same.”

Dani hung up the phone and sat perfectly still for a moment.

“D?”

Dani barely registered the fact that El was talking to her.

“D? What happened? You OK?”

“Um…” Dani stalled.

She hadn’t exactly told everyone else about her audition yet. She was terrified of jinxing it, so had only told a few people close to her. El knew, but KJ didn’t, and he was sitting right next to her, so he would hear everything Dani said.

“Yeah,” Dani said instead. “Um, I have to go call Liam real quick.”

She jumped out of her seat and hurried out of the office. She was positive a few heads turned to watch her go, but she couldn’t be bothered at the moment.

Dani hurried down the hallway and out of the building. As soon as her feet hit pavement, she called Liam.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up!” she muttered, waiting for Liam to answer the damn phone.

“Hey, babe,” he finally said.

“I got a meeting!” Dani screeched into the phone.

“Huh? What meeting?”

“Liam, keep up! I got a meeting with the casting directors for STOMP. I’m going to see them next Saturday.”

“Holy shit!” Liam yelled. “You got the meeting? You got the meeting! I told you you would!”

“I know you did, but I really didn’t believe it. Like, out of all of the applicants, they picked me. _Me._ Liam, I don’t even know what to say right now; I don’t know how I got out a full sentence on the phone. I’m just… Oh, my God, Liam. I got a meeting.”

“You got a meeting,” Liam repeated. “There was never a shadow of a doubt in my mind that you would.”

“Thank you. Do you know how grateful I am for you? You’ve been so supportive throughout all of this and you still are. I’m just so happy I have you.”

“I love you,” Liam said softly. “And I’m so happy to have you, too, and I’m so proud of you.”

Dani smiled easily before taking a deep breath. “OK… I have to call my parents and tell them the news.”

“OK. Break it to them slowly; you don’t want to give your dad a heart attack with all the excitement.”

“I will!" Dani assured. "No, I think I’ve toned it down a little bit now.”

“Good. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sure will. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Dani hung up the phone and allowed herself one more squeal before calling her parents to tell them the good news. She was well on her way to making her way to a performance stage.

She could practically feel the spotlight already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the technical stuff that Harry was talking about in the office is what I can remember from when I worked on my school paper. Granted, the last time I worked on an issue was in 2011, so the details might be a little mixed up. But I tried!


	27. Big Decisions

On Saturday afternoon, Dani sighed and checked her cell phone again. She had plenty of service where she sat, so she knew that wasn’t why the phone wasn’t ringing or why she didn’t have any new emails.

She had been eagerly waiting to hear back from the STOMP casting directors for two weeks now. They’d said that it would take some time before they made their decision, but she still wished they would hurry up and call her to tell her that she wasn’t chosen to come back for a second audition.

Of course, it wasn’t guaranteed that Dani wasn’t getting another attempt. It wasn’t like Dani had bombed her first audition. On the contrary, Dani thought that she had done pretty well. The problem was, she didn’t want to get her hopes up and start thinking about how her life would change if she got the part. The bigger problem was that she already had.

Over the last two weeks, she’d spent a lot of time thinking about the flat she would get – because they’re not called apartments in London, but flats – and what it would look like. She’d wondered about the other people who would be working on the show with her and whether they’d spend their time at a pub getting a drink after a week’s worth of shows. She’d thought about how she and Liam would continue to make their relationship work even with an entire ocean between them.

Dani had thought about it all, and that was dangerous, because if she didn’t get the part, it would take a long time to recover from.

She stared at her phone screen, mentally willing it to light up, for someone to contact her with news – any news.

“Dani!”

She jumped and looked around quickly.

“Sorry, what?”

El sighed, although she had a good idea of why Dani was so distracted.

Dani, El and Niall were at Leigh-Anne, Jade and Jesy’s apartment, talking about what they should do for the annual food fight/last night in the office.

“We asked if you had any suggestions,” Leigh-Anne said.

“Um… Well, it’s tough, because there have been a lot of good plans that have come out the last few years,” Dani said. “I mean, last year was the banana split food fight. The year before that, Ed and Sandy attacked us with squirtable chalk. The years before that were chocolate syrup and cupcakes, and water guns. We need to come up with something really good to get them. Maybe it shouldn’t be food.”

“But what can it be?” Jade asked.

“Well, the water guns were four years ago,” El pointed out. “What about water balloons? We haven’t done those.”

Niall shook his head. “There actually is a reason for that: because they’re too big of a risk. We can’t control where the water from the balloons will go when they explode. We could fuck up the computers.”

“That’s why we put plastic bags over them!” Jesy said. “To keep the computers safe from whatever we start throwing.”

“It’s too risky, though,” Leigh-Anne said.

“It really is,” Niall agreed. “Not a good idea.”

Dani sighed. “OK. What else is there?”

“Silly string?” Jade suggested.

“That’s fine, but it’s a little lame,” Niall told her.

El groaned. “So what else? God, this is so frustrating.”

“No, there has to be something that we’re just not thinking about,” Leigh-Anne decided. “There has to be.”

Jesy pulled out her phone. “I’m Googling it: ‘gross foods to throw at people.’ Maybe that’ll help.”

“We could do eggs!” Niall shouted. “Why didn’t we think of that before?”

“Because that would probably hurt if we threw eggs,” El pointed out.

“So?”

Dani shook her head. “No, Niall.”

Niall pouted and sat back in his seat again.

The group sat quietly for a few minutes before Jesy sat up a bit straighter. “How do we feel about cooking our food a bit before we throw it?”

She looked around at the group. None of them seemed opposed.

“Good. Because I may have just found something for us.”

\---

That same day, Perrie glanced over at Zayn for probably the fourth time that minute. She wasn’t sure how to exactly approach the topic of grad school. She was pretty sure the tension behind the whole thing was gone, but Perrie was still nervous to bring it up.

“You’re staring,” Zayn muttered without looking up from his phone.

The two of them were in Zayn’s basement, sitting next to each other on the worn couch that Zayn’s family had had for nearly too long.

“Yeah, I am,” Perrie said.

“Why?”

“Well, I actually, um, sent off my letter to school yesterday accepting their offer for admission.”

Zayn smiled and looked up from his phone. “Oh, did you now?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Well, I bet Berkeley will be excited to hear from you.”

“I didn’t send my acceptance to Berkeley.”

“You didn’t?”

Perrie shook her head.

“So where did you send it?”

“Chicago,” Perrie said. “I’m going to Northwestern.”

Zayn blinked, and remained silent.

“Zayn? Did you hear me?”

He looked down at his phone and started tapping quickly at the screen. Perrie sat perfectly still, wondering what he was thinking.

“A flight to Chicago is only a little more than two hours,” Zayn read from his phone. “I can get a ticket for like, a hundred and fifty round-trip. Maybe two hundred. That’s a lot better than the tickets I was looking up for Berkeley.”

Perrie smiled. “Zayn?”

“What?” He shrugged. “You didn’t think I did my research?”

“Well, of course, I figured you had. But, I don’t know… you’re not mad?”

“Why would I be mad? You’re going to Northwestern; that’s still an awesome school.”

“I know, but we got into a bunch of fights over me going to school and it was always over Berkeley, so… I don’t know. You’re not annoyed that I’m just not going to Berkeley now?”

“How could I ever be annoyed with something that’s the best decision for you?”

Perrie’s smile grew even bigger.

“Look, I don’t think I told you this, but after our fight, I talked to Liam and Louis. And Liam basically ripped me a new one for making you feel like shit, for making you feel like my support was conditional, like it was only based on what school you would be going to. And he was right. I’m incredibly proud of you for getting into grad school. I meant that when I said it before. And where you end up going shouldn’t depend on how I feel about it, but where you’ll feel most comfortable. Why do you want to go to Northwestern? What swayed your decision?”

Perrie thought it over for a moment. “Um… Well, the program at Northwestern is more focused on magazine writing and editing, while the Berkeley program is more about journalism in general. So, my experience would be a lot more specific to what I actually want to do. My classes and assignments and internships would be all about working for a magazine, so it will just be a lot more beneficial to me. Northwestern is giving me a little more in financial aid, too.”

Zayn nodded. “When does the semester start?”

“First day is September 21, so I have to be moved in by then. I need to start apartment hunting like, now. But my parents said they would help me for a little bit with rent until I find a job and get fully settled in.”

“I think I like Chicago better, anyway,” Zayn admitted.

“Why?”

“There are more art galleries and showrooms in Chicago. I mean, there are some in California, but not as many around Berkeley.”

“Something else you’re doing research on?” Perrie asked.

“Of course. You’re moving across the country; I want to know all about where you’re going.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And you’re sure you’re good with this?”

“Of course,” Zayn answered. “I’m excited, honestly. I’ve never been to Chicago. I mean, I’ve never been to California, either, but that doesn’t matter now. You’re going to Northwestern!”

“I’m going to Northwestern!”

Zayn opened his arms and Perrie shuffled across the couch to slide into them.

“I love you,” Zayn whispered.

“I love you, too.”

\---

“You want another one?”

Louis stood up and stretched, waiting for a response. He had driven up to campus after work so he could hang out with Harry and Niall. It was Wednesday night, and also the last week before ‘Banned Week,’ when Niall and the other seniors wouldn’t be allowed in the office at all so that the new editors could fly solo.

As part of tradition, the seniors couldn’t come in tonight, either, and would only be in for a few hours tomorrow. Niall was waiting for a text from Casey updating him on how the night was going, but so far, he’d gotten nothing.

“She’s probably just doing this to be mean,” Niall grumbled before drinking down the last few drops of his beer.

“She’s not doing it to be mean,” Harry said. “They’re probably fine.”

Technically, Harry could’ve gone into the office tonight, as he wasn’t graduating this semester. But once Louis said he was coming up to campus, Harry figured that Claire would be OK without him. He wasn’t about to let his boyfriend be on the same campus as him and not spend time with him.

“Niall, I’m absolutely positive that she’s doing all right,” Louis agreed. “Anyway, since you’re not answering my question, I’m getting you both another beer.”

He walked into the kitchen and pulled the fridge open to grab three more bottles. When he returned, he found Harry and Niall both standing up and staring each other down.

“Give me back my phone,” Niall hissed, lunging for Harry, who quickly tossed the phone he held in his hand to Louis.

Fortunately for everyone, Louis was holding the beer bottles in one hand and was able to catch Niall’s cell with the other.

“Come on!” Niall whined.

“What’s going on?” Louis asked.

“He wants to call Casey and check up on her,” Harry answered. “And I told him not to because she is fine. She’s been doing this job all year and knows how to handle it.”

“I trust her; I really do, but like… She needs to tell me how it’s going. I deserve to know! It’s my job!”

Niall stomped his foot with his last sentence. Louis and Harry both raised an eyebrow in silent judgment.

“Careful, Niall,” Louis warned. “You’re starting to sound like me.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Come on; you remember last year when Liam asked me who I picked to replace me and I froze up because I was afraid to let go.”

“This is completely different.”

“You’re right; it is. Because Casey is fully experienced in this job and will be able to train Mike to be just as good as she is. They’ll be fine. I had to throw Cher in completely by herself.”

Niall sighed.

“What are you so afraid of?” Harry wondered.

Niall just shrugged. “I don’t know… I mean, I don’t want Casey to be too critical about Mike coming in. Like, she got used to how Josh and I did things, and then we built up our own system this year, and now that might change.”

“Casey’s pretty good, though. I don’t know if you noticed.”

“No, I did. She’s like, the second best sports editor we have this year.”

Harry rolled his eyes while Louis just held back his laugh.

“Anyway…” Louis said. “My point is, Casey’s super talented at her job, and by working with her, Mike will be, too. It’ll be just like last year, _Josh_.”

Niall frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Well, don’t tell him I told you, but Josh and I had a very similar conversation this time last year about you and Casey.”

“What?”

“I didn’t know that,” Harry said.

Louis nodded. “Yup. It was this same week, when we couldn’t go in on Wednesday night. The two of us went in on Thursday morning to check the pages-”

“I knew it!” Niall yelled. “He told me he didn’t, the bastard.”

“Well, we did, because we were third-year editors at the time, so we were a little obsessive about our sections, all right? Does that sound familiar, Niall?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

“Uh-huh. Anyway, he said the same thing about you and Casey that you’re saying about Casey and Mike. He wanted you guys to find the right balance to work together and he didn’t want you to be too hard on Casey just because she might not do something the same way that he did.”

“What’s your point?” Niall asked.

“My point is that you’re a third-year editor now, and it sucks having to leave,” Louis admitted. “But we all have to do it at some point, so you have to have faith that you trained Casey enough to lead the section. You have to trust that she knows what she’s doing and that she can do it well.”

“ _Do_ you trust Casey?” Harry asked.

“Of course,” Niall answered without hesitation.

“Then you have to realize that after tomorrow… You’re really not a part of _The Taylor Times_ anymore,” Louis said gently. “And it sucks.”

Niall dropped his gaze to the floor before sitting back down on the couch.

“The paper is all I’ve known these past three years,” he finally whispered.

“I know, buddy.”

Louis sat down next to him and gave him back his phone.

“It sucked for me, too,” Louis admitted. “But you have to focus on the positive: you’re graduating, and you’re done with studying and homework and tests and you finally get to walk across that stage and get your diploma.”

Niall nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you still want to call Casey?” Harry asked, sitting on Niall’s other side.

Niall considered the question before taking a deep breath and tossing his phone to the coffee table.

“Nah,” he answered. “Beer me.”

He held out a hand toward Louis, waiting for Louis to give him a cold bottle. Louis just chuckled and reached for the bottle opener they’d thrown on the end table earlier in the evening. He quickly opened all three, held on to one and gave the other two to Niall and Harry.

“To growing up when we don’t want to,” Louis said, holding his beer up.

They both smiled as they clinked their bottles to Louis’.

Niall shook his head. “Cheers.”

\---

Niall’s resolve only lasted about fifteen hours. He was in the office by eleven the next morning. He walked in to find it surprisingly empty. He had been sure that Leigh-Anne, or maybe even El and Dani, who got the privilege of going in late last night, would be there.

He immediately went over to check his pages, which were complete, headlines and captions included. He didn’t know why he was so surprised.

Even from the beginning, Casey had never been a slacker, always wanting to get the pages as complete as possible by the end of the night every Wednesday. He supposed she would be teaching Mike to do things the same way.

“Well look who we have here.”

Niall turned to see Casey standing in the office doorway, her arms crossed against her chest and a smug look on her face.

“Hi,” Niall said, dropping the pages to the table.

“How do they look?” Casey asked.

“Perfect, just like every other week.”

Casey grinned. “Josh warned me you might be coming in here today.”

“Son of a bitch! He and I need to have a serious talk this weekend.”

“Why?”

“Well, this, and because apparently he was worried about us working together last year.”

“You mean like right now, when you’re worried about me working with Mike?”

“No! Why does everybody think it’s the same thing?”

“Because it is, loser. I hate to break it to you, but we’re going to be good. Obviously, I would prefer you because I’ve grown surprisingly fond of you over this last year, but you’re on to bigger and better things, my Irish leprechaun friend.”

Niall laughed. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

Casey stared at Niall, waiting for him to say anything else. When he didn’t, she walked further into the office and shut the door behind her. She walked over and stood next to him.

“What’s up?” she asked.

Niall just shrugged. “I don’t know, just… It’s turning out to be surprisingly tough to move on. I thought it would be easier to say goodbye to this place.”

“After three years? Yeah, right.”

“I know. Who thought I would actually have feelings?”

This time, Casey was the one who laughed.

“You’re gonna do great, kid,” Niall finally said. “Make me proud, all right?”

“Of course. I mean, I’m also the first girl sports editor in like, six years, so it’s not like I ever had room to slack off.”

“Yeah, you showed me that from the first day.”

“Oh, you mean when I called the soccer coach and demanded another interview because I didn’t like the one we got from that new writer?”

“Yup. I think the only reason he even did that interview was because he was afraid of you.”

“As he should’ve been,” Casey said. “I’m very intimidating.”

“I know you are.”

Casey leaned her head on his shoulder. “I’m gonna miss you, Irish.”

“I’ll miss you, too, Varsity.”

Casey looked up at him. “Varsity? Where did that come from?”

Niall shrugged. “I don’t know; you gave me a nickname. I figured I should give you one.”

Casey snorted. “Nerd.”

“Yeah, well… Don’t forget about me, all right?”

“I didn’t forget Josh, I could never forget you.”

Niall smiled. “Good.”

\---

On Saturday, Dani checked her email immediately after she woke up. It had now been three full weeks since her audition and she had lost approximately ninety percent of any hope she held in getting a callback. The little bit of her that was still holding on to the chance of hearing back from the producers was wearing thin, though.

So when the very first email in her inbox was from the producers, Dani got so excited that she dropped her phone right on her face.

“Ow,” she whispered, picking up her phone. Rubbing at her forehead and nose, she took a deep breath and opened the email.

The first word that she saw was ‘Congratulations!’ The second thing she saw was a date: May 12.

“Oh, no.”

Before getting ahead of herself, Dani read the entire email.

 

_Dear Ms. Peazer,_

_Congratulations! After reviewing your initial audition for STOMP, you have been chosen for the second and final round to find a new performer in our production._

_Please be advised that you are part of a small, select group of individuals who have the potential to be a part of our cast. This is not a notice that should be taken lightly._

_At your audition, you will perform an **original** piece using materials typically found in a STOMP performance. Attached, you will find a list of objects that may be used, and all will be provided on the audition stage. Your piece will be timed and must be between one and three minutes in length. _

_Your audition will take place on Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 11 a.m. Please check in no later than 10 a.m. Tuesday morning._

_Please contact us immediately with any questions or concerns._

_We look forward to seeing you on May 12 and can’t wait to see what you create._

_With warm regards,_

_Hailey Rowell_

_STOMP Casting Director_

Dani read the letter two more times, letting the information sink in. May 12. Her audition was on May 12, the same day as graduation.

She felt like she was going to be sick. Everything that she had worked for had led up to this, and because of it, she wasn’t even going to be able to walk across the stage and get her diploma.

Her mom was going to be pissed.

Dani covered her face with her hand and dragged it slowly down her face. She took a deep breath, trying to be reasonable about this.

The audition was a huge opportunity, and not something that she could just turn down because it fell on the same day as a huge life event. Wasn’t that a part of growing up: not being able to do everything she wanted to do because of work commitments?

Graduation was just a day. It didn’t mean that she wouldn’t get her diploma, seeing as real diplomas got mailed out weeks after the actual ceremony, once all of the grades were finalized and it was proven that students had passed. She didn’t actually _need_ to be at the ceremony to graduate. But at the same time, she’d worked so hard over the last four years and really wanted to walk with her friends, and have Liam and her family there to cheer her on.

But isn’t this _why_ she had worked so hard? To get opportunities like this and be able to make something of herself? This was literally what she wanted to do with her life and to complain about it because it was the same day as graduation would be extremely immature.

She knew what she had to do, but it didn’t mean she would be happy about it. 

Dani rolled her eyes, because, of course, this would be her luck. All she knew was, after all of this, she better get that part.


	28. Food is (Always) an Option

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so Spencer is involved in this chapter. That means that there's some homophobic language, which I've marked off as best as I could between double lines. You know the drill by now - read up to the double lines and pick up after the next set if you don't want to read that. But you definitely don't want to skip that section of the chapter. It's good. =)
> 
> Just as a reminder, this is the new staff:  
> Executive – Damien Hurley  
> Managing – KJ Bennett  
> News – Harper Grant, McKinley Vaughn  
> Features – Brian Moore  
> Entertainment – Tyler Anderson  
> Opinion – Cher Lloyd  
> Sports – Casey Callahan, Mike Walsh  
> Photos – Harry Styles, Claire Robertson  
> Ads – Laura Kerr, Greg Fitzgerald

For the first time in a long time, Harry felt weird at a Monday meeting. Over the last year he’d gotten used to the new staff, but now he had to do that all again. This time, however, in addition to no Louis or Liam, now there was no Niall, either.

Across from him, Casey and Mike were talking about the stories for this final week, and at the head of the table, Hurley and KJ sat doing the same. At the other end were Harper and McKinley, the new News editors, and Laura and Greg, the new advertising managers. Next to Mike sat Brian, who took over for KJ, and Tyler. Claire sat to his right, texting on her phone.

The only person who was exactly the same – apart from Tyler, unfortunately – was Cher, and Harry was very grateful for that. All of this change was only a little overwhelming. Not that it was totally unexpected, as they’d had the last few weeks to get used to seeing the new faces around the table, but still.

“OK, guys, we have a lot to get through, so let’s get started,” Hurley announced from the head of the table.

Harry raised his hand.

Hurley looked at him in surprise before asking, “Uh, yeah? Harry?”

“What section do we start with?” Harry asked seriously.

Hurley stared at him for a moment before realizing the joke.

“Oh. Haha,” Hurley said. “That was funny, Harry. Really. News, you’re up.”

Harry smiled to himself, listening to both Cher and Claire chuckling on either side of him.

Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad after all.

\---

“So how’s the blog coming?” Zayn asked that night at Liam and Louis’ apartment. Louis was over at his mom’s spending time with the babies, though, so it was just the two of them for the evening.

“It’s good,” Liam answered. He propped his feet up on the coffee table and dropped his head back to the sofa. “It’s really good.”

“Can you say that a bit more convincingly now?”

Liam smiled. “No, it really is good. It’s just almost over.”

“Oh, yeah. Your coworker comes back soon, doesn’t she?”

Liam nodded. “Yeah, she’s back on Monday. But she asked me to write the blog next week, too, just so she can take some time to get back into the swing of things. Plus, she’s doing some research for another post, so she needs some more time for that.”

“So that means you have, what? Two more posts?”

“Yeah. One’s going up Wednesday and then my last one is next week. It sucks.”

“Thought you were done being down on yourself for this?”

“I just don’t want to go back to being a copy editor,” Liam said. “These past few months have been awesome, getting to actually write something on a regular basis. I’m going to miss it, that’s all.”

“Have you talked to your boss? Maybe she has plans for you to do something else because you’ve impressed her so much.”

“Maybe. I doubt it, but I can ask.”

Zayn nodded. “It can’t hurt.”

Liam just shrugged.

“Did I tell you Perrie’s going to Northwestern instead of Berkeley?”

“Is she? What changed her mind?”

“She said the Northwestern program is more specific to what she wants to do: magazine writing,” Zayn answered. “So she’s going for it. She has to leave by like, mid-September.”

“You didn’t put in any applications in California, did you?”

Zayn shook his head. “No, thankfully. I think I may have outed myself, though. I mentioned to her that there aren’t many galleries and stuff near Berkeley, and that there are more in Chicago. She didn’t seem suspicious, but…”

“Well, now you have more options with Chicago. Don’t worry; you’ll get a job offer real quick.”

“I hope so,” Zayn said quietly.

“You will,” Liam reassured. “And even if you don’t, at least you won’t have the entire Atlantic Ocean between you guys.”

“It sucks Dani has to miss graduation for that audition.”

“I know; she was so torn up about it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry that hard. She even tried to call and ask if it could be the day before or the day after, and they told her that if she wasn’t serious about the audition, then she shouldn’t even show up. God, I hate them.”

Zayn stayed silent, letting Liam vent.

Liam took a deep breath before continuing. “I tried to tell her that it was just a ceremony, and she would still get her diploma, but I think that just made it worse.”

Neither one of them spoke for a minute.

Finally, Liam said, “I mean, if anything, it’s a good excuse to get a passport. I guess.”

Zayn nodded. “Always a good thing to have. I got mine when I was a kid. My mom took us so we could visit my dad’s family.”

“Do they take long to get?”

“A couple weeks, I think; maybe longer. You’ll have to look into it.”

“You know what I realized the other day?”

“What?” Zayn wondered.

“Well, last year was like, the year of office romances, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, this year is the year for long-distance relationships. First it was Louis and Harry and Niall and Josh. Now, it’s going to be you and Perrie and me and Dani. Well, as of now, anyway. I just think it’s crazy how everything changes so quickly.”

“Yeah, that is weird.”

Liam sighed. “I’m hungry. You want pizza?”

Zayn snorted at the lack of segue between topics. “Sure.”

“OK. Let me find the menu.”

Liam got up to go into the kitchen where he and Louis kept their takeout menus. Zayn sat right where he was, thinking about the places he’d looked up in Chicago that might be hiring. He had some work to do.

\---

“… would be like going to the Entertainment editor to find out the score of last night’s soccer game,” Harry said as part of his speech for Comm Theory.

He looked out to his classmates, all of whom seemed to be listening to what he had to say – except Spencer, who had his eyes down in his lap as he texted away on his phone.

He cleared his throat and continued. “Of course, the Entertainment editor _might_ know the score because he might have an interest in soccer, but it’s far more likely that one of the Sports editors will have the information that I need, meaning it would make much more sense and save much more time to just go straight to them. This is just part of the theory that I did my research on.”

He concluded his speech a few minutes later, and sat down, happy that his presentation was over. Niall was next to go, so as Harry got comfortable, Niall went to the podium and started to set up his PowerPoint.

 

* * *

* * *

 

“Nice job, faggot,” Spencer whispered behind him.

Harry rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. This was the penultimate time this class would be meeting up and Niall was the last speech of the day, so he only had to deal with Spencer for one more class period. Harry’s current grade was high enough that their professor wasn’t requiring Harry to take the final exam, so once Niall was done speaking, Harry only had to see Spencer for ninety minutes on Thursday, and hopefully no more.

Niall began talking about his theory, but to be honest, Harry wasn’t paying any attention, because for the next four minutes, Spencer kept whispering homophobic bullshit in Harry’s ear, comments about Harry getting to spend more time with his boyfriend, and how he would need to stock up on lube to prep for all that extra time. There was also a mention of going to Woody’s that Harry didn’t find to be particularly friendly.

With every word out of Spencer’s mouth, he felt himself getting tenser, his fists squeezing more tightly together. The thought of just turning around and decking Spencer right in his foul, disgusting face ran quickly around his mind, and, despite Harry’s aversion to violence, was rather difficult to chase away.

Thankfully, Niall soon finished his speech, meaning Harry was free for the day. His classmates quickly got up and began exiting the room, leaving only a few in the room along with their professor.

Harry looked over his shoulder and glared at Spencer before standing up.

“Aww, don’t pout, Princess,” Spencer said. “Or maybe you want to, then your boyfriend can fuck you and make you feel better.”

It all happened so fast. Just as Harry was clenching his fists and turning around, Niall was pushing past him.

“Whatever the fuck you’re saying to him, shut the fuck up,” Niall growled, getting in Spencer’s face.

Spencer quickly glanced over to Harry before looking back at Niall. Then he scoffed. “Should’ve known you faggots would stick together.”

“Excuse me?” Niall asked.

“Niall, stop,” Harry said. “He’s not worth it.”

“Yeah, listen to your girlfriend, Horan,” Spencer sneered. “God, I thought you were one of the good ones.”

“One of the good ones?”

“Yeah, I figured that since you didn’t flaunt it like this one over here-”

“Flaunt it?” Harry asked. “Please, you were the one who looked at my neck that first day!”

 

* * *

* * *

 

“-I might be able to deal with you,” Spencer continued, ignoring Harry entirely.

“But I was clearly wrong. I should’ve known you’d defend him.”

“Of course I would,” Niall said. Then he smiled. “One, because he’s my best friend, and two…”

Then he wound up, his fist connecting roughly with the side of Spencer’s face.

“Niall!” Harry yelled, grabbing onto his friend’s arm to make sure he didn’t do anything else.

Spencer went down hard, landing on the desk he was standing next to, bringing it down with him.

The few other students in the room gasped loudly as Spencer crashed.

“Mr. Horan!” Dr. James shouted.

“Yeah, yeah,” Niall said, shaking his hand. “I’m leaving.”

Niall gathered his stuff.

He turned toward Spencer and said, “You can tell everyone a faggot gave you that black eye, fucker,” before walking briskly from the room.

Harry stood there in shock, not sure what he was supposed to do next.

“Mr. Styles, care to explain?” Dr. James asked, both eyebrows raised. The other students in the room awkwardly got their things together so they could leave.

Harry cleared his throat. “Um, I’ll do what I can, professor.”

\---

After Harry got done with Dr. James, he stormed back to his apartment.

“What the hell was that?” he yelled, walking inside and seeing Niall sitting on the kitchen counter. He had a bag of frozen vegetables laying flat across his knuckles, which were probably going to bruise.

“What do you mean?” Niall asked. He took a sip of the beer clenched in his good hand, looking calm, as if the last half hour hadn’t happened.

“You know what I mean. Why did you punch him?”

“Because he pissed me off, Harry. You know as well as I do that he deserved for _someone_ to punch him. It’s been a long time coming, especially since I know that’s not the first time he’s said shit to you, so…”

“Niall, you can’t just go around punching people that are homophobic! I know it’s 2015, but people are still idiots, and that’s not changing any time soon.”

“Harry, you didn’t see your face,” Niall explained. “The whole time I was giving my presentation, I watched as you sat completely stone-faced with both hands clenched on top of your desk. It only got worse every time Spencer opened his mouth. And like I already said, I know it’s not a first-time thing. What else has he said to you that I didn’t hear?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters! Harry, what did he say?”

“Just…” Harry stalled. “More of the same, I guess.”

“And that’s not OK, Harry!”

“Well of course it’s not OK, but violence isn’t the answer, Niall! There’s only one more meeting of that class, and after that, I can forget all about Spencer and his homophobic comments. You didn’t have to punch him.”

“Of course I had to, Harry. You were about to.”

“You don’t know what I was about to do!” Harry insisted.

“Oh, really? That’s why your hands were clenched in fists and your thumb sat on the outside of your fingers? That’s the perfect way to throw a punch, in case you weren’t aware.”

Harry took a deep breath. He couldn’t deny that punching Spencer was a thought in his mind, but that didn’t mean that he was actually going to do it.

“Well?” Niall asked.

“I- Niall…”

“I couldn’t let you punch him, Harry,” Niall spoke softly. “There’s no way. I mean, for a second, I was going to just pull you away so we could go, but when he started in on me… Anyway, you worked way too hard this year to get in trouble over something like that, so better me punching him than you.”

“So now what? You’re just gonna be some hero, punching losers who make homophobic comments toward people? Getting your knuckles all bruised up?”

Niall shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt that bad. But again, better me getting in trouble than you. What can they really do to me? My classes are pretty much done, and my assignments are all handed in, except for my senior project, which I present tomorrow. Harry, I’ll be fine. You had way more at risk to punch that asshole than I did.”

“Still, Niall…”

“Harry, it’ll be fine. Just relax. I’m sure Spencer won’t be messing with you anymore, though.”

“What a silver lining…”

Harry sighed and looked at his roommate, who still looked perfectly calm.

“I love you, you know,” Niall said happily.

“Yeah, I figured, when you called me your best friend before punching someone in my honor. I’m touched, really.”

“You better be. For the record, I might need you to cook me some dinner. I’m having some trouble using my hand.”

Harry snorted. “Idiot.”

\---

Two nights later, Harry watched as Cher barely stifled her yawn. It was just after ten o’clock on Thursday night, meaning they all should’ve been home by now. But the News section was having some trouble.

There was going to be a new academic building built on campus, and construction had been set to begin May 19, a week after graduation. However, production had hit a snag, as the project had already gone over budget. Construction couldn’t get underway until the financial issue got sorted out, and it wasn’t looking like it would begin on time.

Needless to say, the article about the new building needed to be revised… at ten o’clock on Thursday night.

Hurley was working with McKinley on rearranging the article, while Harper and KJ tried to come up with a different title.

Thankfully, the rest of the paper was complete, and everyone was just waiting for News to be done.

“I wish they would hurry up and finish,” Cher whispered.

Harry just nodded.

He turned and looked up at Claire, who stood beside him. “It’s almost never like this. I promise. It’s usually like the last few weeks on Thursday nights.”

“Oh, OK,” Claire said. “Good. I was a little nervous, to be honest.”

“Nah. Usually we’re done at ten. But on the plus side, at least tonight, we get everybody’s company. If this ever happens, and all the other sections are done, then it’s just us here, waiting until the final section is done so we can leave.”

“Hey, Cher!” Hurley called over his shoulder. “Honest opinion?”

“Always,” Cher shot back.

“Were we always this annoying trying to export the section?” he asked, referring to just two weeks ago when he and Leigh-Anne were in charge of finishing the News section by a certain time.

Cher just shrugged.

“Was that supposed to be helpful?”

“Well, to be honest, I wouldn’t know. I’m never here this late on Thursday nights. Only reason I’m here tonight is because it’s the last issue.”

“Oh,” Hurley said. “Good point.”

“I’ll answer for her,” Casey cut in. “Yeah, News was always this annoying and we hate waiting for you.”

“Thanks, Casey,” McKinley said from where she sat next to Hurley.

“Any time!”

“Focus, people!” KJ said. “Come on, the others are waiting for us.”

“Have we heard from them lately?” Casey asked. “Niall last texted me like an hour ago and said that El was probably going to be drunk when they got here.”

“Dani told me the same thing about Jade,” Harry called out. “We might not have much of a food fight if two of them can’t even walk a straight line.”

“That’s fine with me,” Cher said. “That ice cream was a bitch to get out of my hair last year.”

“And scrubbing it out of the carpet killed my arms.”

“It’s tradition, though, isn’t it?” Tyler asked. “I mean, they’re going to have something for us.”

“It doesn’t hurt to dream, though,” KJ said. “Hey, Tyler, remember last year when we tried to corner them and instead, we just got chocolate syrup down our shirts?”

Tyler shuddered. “Ugh, yeah. Don’t remind me. That was disgusting.”

“Yeah, well at least you didn’t have Josh spraying whipped cream directly in your face,” Casey called out. “He went right for me, the little shit.”

“Nah, nothing’s worse than having bananas mashed all over your face and neck,” Harry insisted. “I was trying to get them away from Stan, but Josh distracted me with that damn whipped cream and Stan got me good. It was horrible.”

“He got you, too?” Hurley asked, turning away from the computer.

Harry nodded. “Oh, yeah.”

“Yeah, that was probably the worst,” Hurley agreed. “But don’t worry; Leigh and I got him back with the cake. That was good.”

“Speaking of cake,” Cher cut in, “do we have that this year?”

“Oh, shit. Thanks for reminding me.” Hurley checked his watch. “It’s ice cream cake, so I have to let it melt a little before we can eat it. I’ll do that once we’re done here.”

“You bought ice cream cake after last year’s mess?” Casey asked incredulously.

Hurley shrugged. “Yeah. Thought it would be funny.”

“You were right,” KJ said.

A half hour later, everything was finally complete. KJ sent the pages off to the printer, and was waiting for their confirmation message while everyone else covered the computers and desks with plastic or trash bags.

“Should I text Niall?” Harry wondered when they were done.

Hurley nodded. He got up to take the cake out of the freezer. “Might as well. If El and Jade really are drunk, then it’ll take them some time to get here, even if they’re coming from the girls’ apartment.”

Harry sent a text to Niall, and got a thumbs up emoji as a response.

The phone rang, and KJ answered it. “Hello?... Perfect… Sounds great. Thank you.”

He hung up and turned to the room. “We’re done! The paper’s finally exported!”

Everyone cheered, and they realized that, as far as the newspaper, their year was officially done.

About ten minutes later, they heard people in the hallway outside of the office. They also heard two girls singing loudly to random parts of ‘Drunk in Love.’

“Here we go,” Harry said.

“Brace yourselves!” Casey warned. “Especially you newbies.”

There was a knock at the door, and Hurley slowly opened it. Or, at least he tried to, but Niall rushed in too quickly.

It wasn’t to attack, though. It was to get El in a chair.

“God, she’s heavy,” he muttered as he made El sit down in a seat at the end of the table. “You wouldn’t know it by looking at her.”

“I’ve been drinking; I’ve been drinking,” she happily slurred, dropping her messenger bag to the floor beside her.

“We woke up in the kitchen saying, ‘How the hell did this shit happen?’” Jade sang out. She had an arm around Leigh-Anne and Dani’s necks. They sat her in a chair as Jesy brought up the rear, shutting the door behind her.

“Seriously, how the hell did this happen?” Cher asked.

Jade giggled, snuggling her face into her purse.

“You took too long to export,” Dani answered. “These two thought it would be fun to take a shot every time they started to miss the office, and, well… You can see what happened there.”

“Cigars on ice, cigars on ice,” El continued singing, much quieter this time.

“They’re a mess,” Casey said, laughing.

“Try carrying them here,” Leigh-Anne told her, stretching out her neck and back.

“Do we at least get cake?” Niall wondered. “I’m starving.”

“Niall, you just ate like, six slices of pizza,” Jesy pointed out.

“So?”

“Hang on,” Harry said. “What are you attacking us with?”

Niall sighed. “I mean, we had silly string, because we couldn’t think of anything else. But, with those two the way they are, I think it would be more of a liability to attack you guys with anything tonight.”

He pointed over to El and Jade, who looked like they were about to fall asleep where they sat.

“Well in that case, yes; there’s cake,” Hurley answered. “It’s right over here.”

He brought them all over to the table where they usually put the pizza they ordered on Mondays.

It was a simple cake, with _The Taylor Times_ logo in the middle and a graduation cap on top. In place of candles were six cake pops, one for each graduating editor, in different flavors.

“Oh, this looks awesome,” Dani said.

“It’s chocolate and vanilla with cookies in between the layers,” Hurley replied. “I figured it would be safe for everyone.”

Harry nodded. “Should be good.”

“I can’t wait to try a piece,” Tyler said.

And then he gasped, seizing his shoulders up so high they nearly reached his ears.

Everyone looked at him, confused at his reaction.

Casey asked, “Tyler, what’s the-”

She never got to finish her question, as a small ball of spaghetti hit her square in the chest.

“What the fuck?” she exclaimed.

Then they heard giggles behind them, and turned around to see both Jade and El with huge smirks on their faces. They were now standing up, looking perfectly alert, and holding large Ziploc bags full of spaghetti.

Harry looked down at their feet, seeing both of their purses open. Jesy reached in to El’s purse and pulled out another bag of spaghetti and one with meatballs. She passed the meatballs to Dani.

Niall backed away slowly, reaching behind his desk and pulling out two containers of parmesan cheese that he’d taped there that morning.

“You played us,” Hurley realized, watching Niall toss one container to Leigh-Anne.

El winked before reaching into her bag and flinging more spaghetti at him.

And then it was war.

“Shit,” Cher yelled before running away from the table.

Jesy ran after her, getting both her and Claire at the same time. Leigh-Anne was right behind her, following up with extra cheese. Harry and McKinley, who were closest to her, got the most of it, and would likely be washing cheese out of their long hair for the next few days.

Dani made sure to chuck meatballs in every direction, hitting Tyler, Hurley and Harper, who tried to hide behind a chair.

Eleanor sought out KJ and Brian, who ran around the other side of the editors’ table to avoid her. It was all for nothing, though, as El and Jade ran around different sides of the table and double-teamed them, getting spaghetti down their shirts and even their pants.

Niall went a little nuts with his parmesan. Of course, he targeted Casey and Mike first, and then went for anyone who already had pasta on them, which, at this point, was everyone.

Food was flying everywhere, and there was nowhere to hide, as there were six seniors running around like chickens with their heads cut off, flinging spaghetti, meatballs and parmesan cheese every way they could.

This would definitely be more difficult to clean than last year.

Once all of the food was on a person instead of in a container, the seniors dropped their ‘equipment’ to the editors table and joined in a group hug.

“Well, that was lovely,” Hurley said, wiping a piece of a meatball off his chin.

“Yeah, glad we could experience that bonding moment,” Claire added. Harry was already getting the spaghetti off her back.

“Of course,” Niall said, unable to hide his grin.

“You know, I’m gonna miss you so much, Ni,” Casey told him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “I think I’ll need a hug.”

“No, you don’t need a hug.” Niall tried to back away from her, but Mike ran up behind him, giving him a tight hug. He groaned in disgust as Casey got him from the front, and the two of them got sauce all over his formerly clean clothes.

The other editors got the idea quickly, making sure to give a friendly hug to one of the seniors.

“As lovely as this is,” El mumbled from where KJ and Harper held tightly onto her, “I think we can stop with this now.”

“Of course not!” Hurley said, rubbing his shirt on Leigh-Anne’s to really make a mark.

Harper agreed as she picked a noodle out of her hair and laid it on Dani’s head. “Yeah, we love you guys too much to let you go that easily.”

Eventually, everyone in the office looked just about the same: covered in enough spaghetti, sauce, cheese and meatballs that an Olive Garden would be offended at the waste of food.

“Now can we have cake?” Niall asked grumpily.

“Yeah, I guess so,” KJ sighed. “Why not?”

Hurley picked up the knife from where he had put it before the fight began. “At least it'll be easier to cut now.”

He sliced the cake up, making sure everyone got a piece.

“Before we eat,” Dani said, “I just want to say something.”

Niall groaned loudly.

“I’m so thankful that I got to work with you guys for my year as Executive Editor. You guys made it all so easy to put the paper out each week. You worked so hard and brought so many great ideas to the table, and I’m so proud of what we did this year. And Hurley…”

He looked up at the mention of his name.

“I know that you have a great staff to work with this year,” Dani continued. “You have a bunch of people who are staying on from this year that will make sure that the new editors will continue the awesome legacy that we’ve built and that we’ve built upon. I can’t wait to see what you guys do next year.”

“Thanks, Dani,” Hurley said. He leaned over and gave her a tight hug. “And thank you for setting such a strong example for what an Executive Editor should be. I hope KJ and I do as great of a job as you and El did.”

“Here, here,” El agreed, lifting her plate up in a toast.

“Now let’s eat before Niall blows up the office in a cake-induced rage,” KJ said.

“You mean a lack-of-cake-induced rage…” Niall grumbled.

“To _The Taylor Times_!” Dani said, raising her cake up to meet El’s.

The rest of the staff echoed back to her, “To _The Taylor Times_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's only three chapters left! Gahhhh! It's really happening! This story is actually going to get finished.  
> Next chapter should be up Tuesday!


	29. Unseen Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a bit longer than usual! I highly anticipate the next two to be of similar length.

“What do you mean I can’t walk?”

That wasn’t right. There’s no way that’s what Niall’s advisor just told him.

Ms. Sharp sighed. “Niall…”

“No! That’s not right! After all this time, I can’t walk at graduation? Because of Spencer?”

“Niall, I’m sorry. Believe me, I’m sorry, and I wish it didn’t have to come down to this, but-”

“No, there has to be something else that can be done,” Niall insisted. “I can’t just _not walk_. It’s been four years, and I’ve worked my ass off! I should still be able to walk.”

Ms. Sharp just sighed again.

“And what about that fucker?”

“Niall, watch your language, please.”

“He was a homophobic prick! He bullied my friend and taunted me. And he just gets off scot-free?”

“Of course not!” Ms. Sharp said.

“So what happens to him?”

“He will have consequences, Niall.”

Niall scoffed. “Like what? Sensitivity training and a fine?”

Ms. Sharp stayed silent, and that set Niall off again.

“That’s it?” he exclaimed. “That’s all he has to do? Go to a sensitivity training that he’s going to ignore and pay a fucking fine? Or, well, his daddy’ll probably pay? Meanwhile, I can’t walk in my own graduation?”

“Niall, he’s not a senior. He’s not graduating this year. We can’t punish him a year in advance.”

“Why not?”

“Niall, you’re lucky he’s not pressing charges,” Ms. Sharp said. “And he easily could. You punched him in front of a professor and at least five other students. He could take you to court; he could have you _arrested_. You could have a lot more to worry about than just missing your graduation ceremony.”

The reality of it all came crashing down on Niall. He took a deep, shuddery breath, letting it out slowly.

“I just… I-”

“I’m sorry, Niall.”

Niall dropped his head into his hands and tried to even out his breathing, which had quickly grown ragged.

“I just can’t believe this,” he finally said, his voice cracking on the last syllable. “This isn’t fair.”

His advisor’s silence told him she agreed with him.

He tried to take deep breaths and blink back the tears that were threatening to spill over, but it wasn’t working.

He wasn’t walking at graduation. He wasn’t going to walk across the stage and get a pretend diploma while all of his friends and family cheered for him in the audience. There would be no pictures with his friends in his cap and gown after the ceremony because he wouldn’t be _in_ the ceremony.

He was lucky that they’d picked up their caps and gowns last week, otherwise he wouldn’t get those, either.

He knew he’d fucked up by punching Spencer, but he didn’t think it would come down to this.

A few minutes later, Niall had gotten himself together. He stood up. “Well… Thank you for everything. I appreciate your help with course selection and everything else.”

“You’re welcome, Niall,” Ms. Sharp said, standing up, as well. “I can’t wait to see what you do once you graduate.”

“Thank you.”

He firmly shook her hand before leaving the office.

Once he left, he headed back toward his apartment. He took his time getting there, since he was done with finals for the time being; he only had one on Thursday and one on Friday.

He just couldn’t wrap his head around it: he wasn’t walking at graduation. He knew Dani wasn’t walking, either, but that was for a good reason: she had an audition with an actual stage production. He wasn’t walking because some asshole wouldn’t leave Harry alone.

Niall shook his head. He guessed what they said was true: nice guys finish last.

\---

“Dude, how long have you had this game?” Jake taunted as Harry missed another goal in FIFA.

“Too long to still suck this bad,” Harry whined, dropping his controller to the coffee table.

“I agree. Boom!”

Harry groaned as Jake scored another goal, although it wasn’t like Harry had exactly tried to block it.

Just then, he heard the apartment door open. “Ni? That you?” he called out.

No one answered, so Jake paused the game and they both looked toward the door. They shot out of their seats when they saw the expression on Niall’s face.

“What the hell happened?” Harry demanded.

“Where were you?” Jake asked.

Niall held up a hand so they would stop with their questions.

“Um, look, guys, I just… Um-”

“Is it… Josh?” Harry asked carefully.

“No, Josh is fine. He’s- Oh, shit, I have to call Josh and tell him.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Tell him what?”

Niall sniffled and rubbed at the back of his neck. “That I’m not walking at graduation.”

“What?” Harry and Jake asked in unison.

“Yeah.”

“Because of Spencer?” Harry wondered. “Please tell me it’s not because of him.”

“Oh, it’s definitely because of him.”

“Fuck that guy!” Jake snapped. “You know what? Where does he live? I’m gonna give him another black eye.”

“You’re not going to do that,” Niall said. “Just forget about it. Enough damage has already been done. Luckily, he’s not pressing charges so I don’t have to go to court or anything. Sharp told me his dad wanted to keep the situation quiet; apparently, he’s some big businessman, so news of his son getting knocked out doesn’t exactly paint a good picture for him.”

“Fuck that whole family,” Jake mumbled.

Niall hummed in acknowledgement.

“Niall, there has to be something we can do,” Harry tried.

“There’s not, Harry. Believe me, I made sure Sharp knew about everything Spencer said, but there’s nothing else we can do. She had to fight to make sure I even graduated. Apparently they take their zero tolerance policy seriously.”

“Except for bullying.”

“Well, I threw the first punch, so I started it. And Spencer didn’t fight back, so…”

“It sucks no matter how you spin it, Niall,” Jake said.

“Yeah, well… Look, I’m gonna go lay down for a little while. Have to figure out when the fuck to call my mom and tell her. She won’t be happy.”

Harry and Jake nodded, and Niall slowly went to his room, shutting the door behind him.

“What do we do?” Jake asked.

Harry shrugged. “I have no idea. But we have to do something. The world isn’t right when Niall is this upset.”

“Agreed.”

They went back to sit on the couch to think of a way to cheer up their roommate.

“This seems pretty obvious, but why don’t we just get him drunk?” Jake asked.

Harry snorted. “That’s if we can get him out of his room ever again.”

“Good point.”

They sat in silence for another minute or two before Jake tried again. “How about we get Josh up here so they can spend some alone time together?”

“That’s good; yeah. We can let them have the apartment to themselves. Maybe I’ll buy him a cake, too.”

“What are you going to write on it? ‘Sucks about graduation, hope this buttercream frosting makes you feel better’?”

“You laugh, but it’ll probably help.”

“Harry…”

“Fine. No cake.”

He looked around the apartment, as if something would pop out at him, telling him what to do.

And then it did.

“Wait a minute.”

He stood up and walked over to the windows, closely inspecting them. If he pushed up the window to the far left, there was just a screen that he might be able to pop out.

Then he looked down, seeing the balcony and wondering if he would need anything to step down onto it.

“Harry, what are you plotting?” Jake asked, seeing where Harry’s eyes were focused.

With a final glance at the height of the balcony’s railing, Harry turned to Jake and said, “You know exactly what I’m plotting.”

Jake grinned. “Hell yeah, I do. How are we doing this?”

\---

“All right, guys, you can call it a day now,” Ashlynn said that same night.

Zayn looked up from the portfolio that he was inspecting, surprised that it was already five o’clock.

He and the rest of the interns had been looking through applications to pick the artist who would get the next exhibit.

Well, not the very next exhibit, as that had already been chosen and was scheduled to be up in August, but the one right after that.

This was the final week of their internship, and choosing an artist was the last skill they had to learn.

“Did you find any good ones you want me to consider?” Ashlynn asked, kneeling down to where Zayn was sitting with Ivy and Victor.

“I found a sculptor,” Victor answered. “It’s a woman named Caroline Hudson, and she’s been working for nearly seven years. The pieces that she’s worked on are phenomenal: very lifelike, cut to size and I think it would be a good change from the watercolor paintings that will go up next.”

Ashlynn nodded. “Agreed. Leave the packet on my desk and I’ll look through it.”

Victor smiled and got everything in the application back into its file folder.

“I’m probably a bit biased, but I found a graffiti artist,” Zayn said.

Ashlynn chuckled. “Only a bit, but talk to me about it.”

“Well, it’s a man who just graduated from college last year with an art degree. His name’s Nolan Gilmore. His work features people as opposed to _just_ words or things. Each person is accompanied by a message, like some kind of life lesson or something to motivate the audience. Since this exhibit will be up during the holidays, I think it would be good to have for people who have a tough time then, you know what I mean? Like, the messages of motivation and encouragement would be good to get people through a time that might otherwise be really depressing for them?”

“I like how you think,” Ashlynn told him. “I’ll consider him, too.”

Zayn tried not to let his excitement show, but the truth was, he was thrilled to get such good praise from his boss.

“Ivy? Did you find anybody?”

“Maybe; I’m not sure. I found a sketch artist that I like, but I’m not totally sold on him just yet. I’ll do some more research into his work and let you know tomorrow, if that’s OK?”

“Of course,” Ashlynn said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Boys, just leave your suggestions on the desk and I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

The three interns nodded and got everything they had looked over back into a pile. There were hundreds of applications for them to look through, and right now, their goal was to narrow it down to a select few.

It wasn’t an easy task by any means.

Ivy left the building right from the front room, and Zayn let Victor go first into Ashlynn’s office. He wanted to be alone with her for a minute.

She was already in her office by the time they got back there, typing something on her computer.

“See you tomorrow, V,” Ashlynn said as Victor put his folder in the bin at the front of her desk.

“See you tomorrow,” Victor replied. He aimed the response toward Zayn, too.

“See ya,” Zayn said.

Once Victor was gone, Zayn placed his folder in the bin, as well, but waited for Ashlynn to finish typing.

“Um, Ashlynn?”

“Yes?” she asked, moving her eyes slowly from her screen to Zayn’s nervous-looking face.

“I was wondering if I could talk to you about something?”

“Of course; I’m all ears.”

“Um, well…” He cleared his throat. He didn’t know why he was so nervous all of a sudden. It wasn’t like it was a big deal what he was about to ask.

“So, I know that you’re not currently hiring for this gallery, so I’ve been looking into other places to apply. The problem is, I need letters of recommendation in order to get any further.”

Ashlynn smiled. “Uh-huh.”

“Well, I was actually wondering if you might write me a reference letter?”

Once the question was out, Zayn was pretty sure he stopped breathing. He was only somewhat concerned about Ashlynn telling him no.

All last night, he’d wondered if Ashlynn liked him enough to recommend him to other galleries as an employee. He was sure he’d been doing a good job these past few months, but there was always that small chance that he was incorrect, and that Ashlynn actually didn’t think he had what it took to work in this field.

Ashlynn cleared her throat. “Well, Zayn, as you may know, I’ve been working here for a while, so I’ve had my fair share of interns.”

Zayn nodded. “Right.”

“So, I do know that at the end of the internship, some of you guys realize that this really is the career field that you want to continue in, and nothing makes me happier than that. Especially when it’s the people I like that want to keep going.”

“Yeah…”

“And you are one of the people that I like. You’re smart, you think things through, you have an eye for good art, and, honestly, I could go on all day.”

Zayn blinked. “So, is that a yes?”

Ashlynn chuckled. “That’s an ‘I already started writing one for you, and was just waiting to see when you would ask.’”

Zayn let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you; thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to me.”

“I might have an idea. But you’re welcome. Where have you been looking?”

“Um, well nowhere around here, actually. My girlfriend’s moving to Evanston in September for grad school, and I’m trying to go with her.”

“That’s so sweet,” Ashlynn praised. “Didn’t take you to be the ‘big, romantic gesture’ type.”

“I wasn’t, honestly. But my friend, his girlfriend might be moving to London, and we had a long conversation about everything. And, it kind of just opened my eyes that I don’t want to not be with her. So…”

“And Evanston? Chicago’s pretty close by, I do believe. That’s a great city. Very artsy.”

“It is, yeah. There are a lot of opportunities there; I just have to get hired somewhere first.”

“So, no pressure to write you a good reference letter, then?” Ashlynn joked.

Zayn laughed. “Nah, no pressure at all.”

“Well, congratulations; I’m happy for you. It’s a huge step. I should be able to get you that letter by the end of next week, if that’s good?”

“That’s perfect; thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow, Zayn.”

“See you tomorrow.”

He turned and left the office, feeling like he could fully breathe again. Everything was very slowly falling into place.

\---

“X! Come help me with this!”

Xander came out of his room to find Harry struggling to get the screen out of the window in the living room.

“You still can’t get that out?” Xander asked as he walked over.

“No, and please don’t make fun of me. Get me a screwdriver so we can pry it open.”

Xander fondly rolled his eyes and shook his head, but did as he was asked.

The front door opened just as he opened the junk drawer in the kitchen.

Jake walked in and asked, “OK. We ready?” He shifted the paper bags he was holding so that he could lock the door behind him.

“Nope. Still can’t get the screen out of the window.”

Jake sighed and walked into the living room.

Harry was grunting as he tried – again – to pop out the screen.

Jake went over to make sure for the millionth time that there wasn’t anything holding the screen in place, like a screw or bolt or something.

“Watch out,” Xander said from behind him.

Jake took a few steps back and Xander took his spot. Xander tried to wedge the tip of the screwdriver into the top of the screen as Harry squeezed the two black sliders on the screen that propped it in place.

After a few more minutes of wiggling and twisting the screen, it popped out.

“Finally,” the three of them said.

It was after eight o’clock, so it was dark enough outside that they wouldn’t be immediately spotted by anyone. It was also Wednesday, which was a reading day, so anybody with finals in the next two days would most likely be in their rooms studying.

Harry turned around. “Um, hang on.”

He walked over to their armchair and pushed it up against the window so that the back of the chair was lined up with the sill.

He then climbed onto the chair and turned so his back was to the window. He lowered his arms to the sides of the chair and lifted his legs up so that they slid right out.

“Be careful,” Jake warned, watching his roommate go backward through a second story window onto a balcony that would hopefully hold his weight.

“Yeah, yeah,” Harry grunted as he worked his way back.

He held on tightly to the chair before shifting his grip to the window. He looked down and saw that his feet were just an inch from the ground, so he let go.

He landed easily on his feet, but knowing him, it could’ve been a lot worse.

“Now, can you get back in?” Xander whispered through the window.

“I think so.”

Harry was tall enough that if he stood nice and straight, he could look right through the window into the apartment and could easily lay his palms on the windowsill. He put one foot on the wall and hoisted himself up. He was able to get himself up onto the ledge, and knew he would be able to climb back in later.

“Yeah, we’re good,” he said, dropping back down.

“We don’t need a stepstool, then?” Jake asked.

“Nah. Now go get Niall.”

“I’ll go,” Xander offered.

“Here,” Jake said to Harry as Xander left.

Jake passed out the paper bags he’d just brought in.

Harry peeked in, seeing a six-pack in each one. “Nice.”

“Yeah, I thought so. Watch out; I’m coming down.”

Harry took a couple steps back and placed the beer against the wall a few feet away. He looked over the railing, glad to see that there was no one around.

“What did you do?” Harry and Jake heard Niall cry.

They looked over just as Niall peeked his head out.

“Holy shit,” Niall gasped. “We’re breaking onto the balcony.”

“Yeah, we are.” Harry grinned. “Now come on. It’s easier to come out feet first, on your stomach.”

Niall nodded and started to climb out.

“Hey, X!” Jake called quietly. “Grab a bottle opener.”

Xander nodded and hurried to the kitchen to grab one.

“Shit, this is awesome,” Niall said once his feet were on the ground. Xander joined them a moment later, and the four of them peered over the railing to see if anyone else was around.

They knew that since this was extremely against the rules, they had to keep checking to make sure there wasn’t anybody – either walking by the building or in another building nearby – who would rat them out to campus security.

“OK; let’s have some beer,” Jake suggested. “Xander, where’s that opener?”

Just as Xander reached into his pocket, Harry saw a few people coming out of the building across from them.

“Get down!” he hissed, dropping down to his stomach and laying flat on the floor.

The other three did the same, and they all stayed perfectly still, listening as the group made their way past the building, and it was quiet again. Harry picked his head up and looked around.

“OK; we’re good.”

“That was close,” Niall sighed. The four of them sat up.

“What would happen if we got caught?” Xander wondered.

“Want to ask campus security?” Jake asked.

“No. Why would I ask them?”

“Because they’re coming this way.”

Sure enough, two security guards were making their way around the side of the building.

The four of them dropped back down. A few minutes went by, and Jake whispered, “Are they gone?”

“I’ll look,” Niall whispered back.

“Don’t be seen!” Xander hissed.

“I won’t be! Besides, what’s the worst they could really do to me?”

“You really want to go there?” Harry asked. He was mostly serious.

Niall glared at Harry before army crawling to the edge of the balcony and looking over.

Unfortunately, the guards were still close to the building. Niall looked back and shook his head before moving away from the edge.

They lay there for a few more minutes, and eventually heard the guards walk away.

Jake looked out, watched them head toward the parking lot and sighed a breath of relief when they were finally out of sight.

“God, this is stressful,” Xander muttered. He sat up and stretched, his back letting out a loud crack.

“Yeah, who knew it would be so nerve-wracking to pop a screen out of a window, shimmy out that window and onto a balcony when it’s pretty obvious we’re not supposed to?” Harry joked.

Xander just flipped him off.

“It’s actually really nice up here,” Jake said. “Like, it’s quieter than I thought it would be.”

“Well, it’s a reading day,” Niall reminded him. “Guess there are a lot of Thursday exams.”

“I guess.”

Just then, they heard voices coming their way.

“Down!” Niall quickly whispered.

They all threw themselves down, but before Harry could make full contact, he noticed that one of the girls walking past the building had some familiar, crazy, curly hair.

“Leigh?” he called down.

He saw as Leigh-Anne stopped walking and started looking around.

“What is it?”

The other girl was Jade, and she stopped when she saw that Leigh-Anne was no longer next to her.

“Psst!” Harry called.

It took a minute, but the girls finally looked up, and gasped when they saw four sets of eyes peering down at them.

“What are you doing up there?” Jade hissed.

“We broke out onto the balcony,” Jake answered as they all rose to their feet and looked down over the edge.

“Why?”

“Niall’s sad,” Harry said.

“Why is Niall sad?” Leigh-Anne asked.

“Um…”

Harry, Jake and Xander all looked at Niall, not sure if he wanted to tell them yet.

“I punched a homophobic fucker in the face because he was being an asshole, and I’m the one getting punished for it,” Niall told them. “I can’t walk in graduation.”

“That’s so fucked up!” Jade said.

“God bless America,” Leigh-Anne said sarcastically.

Jade shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Niall!”

He shrugged. “It’s OK. I mean, I haven’t told my mom yet, which is why I’m still alive. Check back in a few days, though.”

“Hey, will you take our picture?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, we need to document this moment,” Jake added.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t we want proof of this?” Leigh-Anne wondered.

She pulled out her phone while the boys got together. She took a few steps back so that their faces weren’t fully cast in shadow.

“Smile,” she instructed.

They did as they were told, and once the picture was taken, Harry asked her to text it to him.

Leigh-Anne nodded. “Will do.”

“Thanks, Leigh,” Niall said.

“You’re welcome!”

“So, will we still see you at graduation?” Jade asked delicately.

“Of course,” Niall told her. “I still have the four of you to support.”

The two of them smiled, and Xander just cleared his throat.

Niall turned to look at his roommate, who had both eyebrows raised up at him.

“Oh, yeah,” Niall said, like he was just remembering that Xander would be graduating as well. “And this one, too, so… Five.”

“Thank you,” Xander muttered.

The girls nodded, silently laughing at Niall.

“Love you, Ni!” Jade called up.

“Love you, too. Now get out of here; go do something fun with your night.”

“Will do,” Leigh-Anne said. “See you.”

With a final wave, the girls turned around and headed toward their apartment.

“All right; give me a beer,” Niall said, holding out a hand.

Jake laughed, but still uncapped a bottle. He handed it off to Niall before getting three more ready.

The four of them sat down with their backs to the wall of the building, drinking their beer and staring out toward campus.

“I’m gonna miss this place,” Xander said quietly.

“Me, too,” Niall agreed.

In the distance, they could hear a party going on, probably at one of the frat houses. There was cheering and a car coming to a screeching halt in the street.

The wind was rustling the leaves on the trees and there was a slight chill in the air, making it feel more like fall than spring.

A bit farther away, they could see the campus lake, the wind causing ripples across the surface of the water. There were a few couples taking late night strolls around it, and Harry remembered more than a year ago, when he and Louis had had their ‘second date’ there on the night Louis asked him to be his boyfriend.

“These are my last days living on campus,” Harry also realized. He’d known, of course, that he’d be moving out of the apartment and would be going to Louis’ in a few months, but it all hit him just then. He wouldn’t get to sit around and just listen to the background noise of different peoples’ college experiences going on around him. He wouldn’t be living with three of his closest friends, and was unsure of when he would even see Xander or Jake after the semester ended.

“This was such a crazy year,” Jake said.

The other three nodded and hummed in acknowledgement. If Harry nodded a bit longer than the others, then so be it.

Niall pulled his phone out of his pocket. “We need a picture of our own.”

The four of them squeezed in together as Niall switched to his front-facing camera.

“OK. Say ‘beer,’” he told them.

“Beer!” they said at the same time.

Niall snapped the picture and examined it. “Looks good.”

Like he was reading Harry’s mind earlier, Xander said, “We need to get together over the summer.”

“Of course we do,” Niall agreed. “We need to update each other if we have any more stories of crazy places where we get penetrated.”

Xander and Harry started laughing, while Jake rolled his eyes.

“Are you still making fun of me for that?” he asked, referring to one of their first conversations after they all moved in back in September.

“Of course we are,” Xander told him. “You brought that on yourself, dude.”

“Whatever,” Jake said. “Hey, maybe Harry will get better at FIFA over the summer.”

Niall started laughing. “Yeah, don’t hold your breath for that one. It’s been two years; I don’t think Harry’s going to get any better than he is now.”

“Hey, you don’t know!” Harry exclaimed, defending himself. “Once I live with Louis, we’ll probably play FIFA a lot. I might come back and kick all of your asses.”

Xander snorted. “OK, H.”

“Sure, buddy,” Jake said, patting Harry on the leg. “Of course you will.”

Harry sighed and took another sip of his beer. “You guys suck.”

“Hey, remember when you punched me in the face because I wanted to wake you up to go running?” Jake asked, even though he knew Harry remembered perfectly well.

“Yeah…”

“Well, at least that’ll never happen again. If I get punched, at least it’ll be for something I deserve.”

“The night’s still young, Jake,” Harry reminded him. “Be careful what you say in the next few hours.”

“I think I’ll be fine.”

“Well, we definitely have to go back to AC,” Xander said. “I mean, that was a fun trip.”

“Yeah, as long as _someone_ doesn’t spend most of his time in his hotel room with his boyfriend.”

One by one, Xander, Jake and Harry fixed Niall with a stare. Once Niall realized they were all watching him, he just shrugged.

“Oh, well. No regrets. At least we weren’t an hour late for a pregame…”

Harry had been taking a sip from his beer, but when Niall said that, he started coughing.

“Yeah, I didn’t forget about that,” Niall said, blowing Harry an air kiss.

“Whatever; it was my birthday.”

“And you and Louis were still just as bad as Josh and me. Don’t even pretend you weren’t.”

They sat silently for a while, just drinking their beer and enjoying each other’s company, something that had become a rarity over the last week or so. They also kept an eye out for anybody passing by, although, as it got later, less people were out and about.

“Isn’t it weird how a year ago, the four of us weren’t really friends, but now, I can’t imagine not living with you?” Xander asked.

“It’s crazy how much can change in a year,” Harry said. “But the feeling’s mutual, man.”

Niall and Jake just nodded.

“Thanks for doing this, you guys,” Niall whispered.

The other three just looked at him, but didn’t say anything.

Instead, Harry just raised his beer up in a toast. Xander, Niall and Jake clinked their bottle with Harry’s and drank, listening to the world continue moving around them while they stayed still.

\---

Perrie dropped her head back and let out a loud groan on Thursday night.

Usually, she enjoyed shopping, but today was literally the worst day ever. She was looking for apartments in Evanston, which wasn’t easy from a thousand miles away. It was even tougher when there was nothing with a decent price tag.

She ran her hands down her face before trying again.

“Why are you so _fucking_ expensive?” she hissed at her laptop screen.

She stared at the map she was currently examining. There was a green flag for every available apartment, and when she hovered over one, it told her the price and address of that specific place. Whenever she changed the view of the map she had, the flags changed, showing her where different apartments were.

She had been looking in the Evanston area for nearly a half hour, and nothing was working. All of the places that looked nice were way too expensive, and the ones that were somewhat close to her price range looked sketchy as fuck.

It was extremely frustrating, to say the least.

Before she could begin looking again, her phone started ringing.

“Hello?”

“Hey, babe,” Zayn greeted happily.

“Hey, Z,” Perrie said. “What are you up to?”

“Talking to you on the phone.”

Perrie rolled her eyes. “Haha, you’re funny.”

“Thanks; I think so. What are you doing?”

“Looking at apartments. It’s really annoying, by the way.”

“Why? You can’t find anything good?” Zayn asked.

“No, I can find plenty of good places, but these jerks want like, two grand for a one-bedroom place. Like, who the fuck do they think is renting these places five minutes away from Northwestern? Millionaires, apparently.”

“I think millionaires splurge a little more than two grand a month for an apartment,” Zayn pointed out.

“Zayn…”

“Sorry. Not the time; I get it. Hey, what street is Northwestern on?”

“Um, I think it’s Clark Street, in Evanston.”

“OK, thanks.”

“Why?” Perrie asked.

“Just wondering. You know, just wanted to hear your voice.”

“Why? What did you do?”

Zayn groaned. “Why do you always assume I did something when I say I want to hear your voice?”

“Because usually, you did.”

“That’s not true.”

Perrie rolled her eyes. She could practically hear Zayn pouting through the phone.

“Oh, really?” Perrie asked. “What about the time you called me and said you dropped my favorite ring down the drain because you were trying to clean it?”

“Exactly. I was trying to make it shine as brightly as you do.”

“That was cheesy. OK, remember when we went to that party at my cousin’s house over the summer and we spent the night? Remember how you fell asleep next to me in the guest room but called me the next morning because you didn’t know where you were?”

“Because I really didn’t know where I was!”

“You were only in the basement, loser,” Perrie said.

“I’d never been to the house before; how was I to know that? Besides, you know I sleepwalk when I get drunk sometimes.”

Perrie sighed. “Anyway… The point is, you always do something before you call me and tell me that you missed my voice or whatever. So spill: what’s going on?”

“Nothing!” Zayn insisted. “I swear.”

“Mm-hmm. I still don’t believe you.”

“That’s fine. Because I love you.”

“What? That didn’t even make sense.”

“It’s still true.”

“It wasn’t relevant to the conversation, though…”

“Oh, so, what? I need an excuse to tell you I love you?” Zayn asked.

Perrie took a deep breath. “I still think you’re hiding something, but whatever. I love you, too.”

“Oh…” Zayn whispered, like he was reading something interesting.

“What?”

“Nothing. You know, I think you’re just tense from all of this apartment hunting.”

“Because no one can afford these places!” she yelled, aiming her anger at her computer. “Jesus, it’s not like Obama’s moving back there after he leaves office. Why are they so expensive?”

“Well where are you looking?”

“I’ve got the map centered on Northwestern, and I’m just moving out to the left and down. Oh, there’s a place for $1,100. That’s not bad. But like, I was hoping to find something super close to campus because I’ll have my car, but if I can take the bus or something to save on gas, I would much rather do that, you know? I mean, money’s going to be really tight as it is. Strangely enough, the farther I get from Evanston, the cheaper the places get. Like, there are low-rent places listed in actual Chicago, which is surprising. You would think that since Chicago’s the bigger city, it would have the higher rent, you know? At least, I think Chicago’s the bigger city. I don’t really know my Illinois geography that well yet. I could be entirely wrong about that, so…”

It was then that Perrie realized she was basically talking to herself. Through her entire rant, Zayn hadn’t said a single word. He hadn’t even tried, either.

“Are you even listening to me?” she asked.

“… Yeah.”

“Zayn!”

“What? I’m listening! I’m just reading something right now.”

“Oh. What are you reading? It must be good.”

“No, it’s not,” Zayn said, a bit grumpily. “I thought it might be, but it wasn’t.”

“Are you reading book reviews again? Zayn, not everyone is as good as summarizing novels as you are. Sometimes you have to give a book a chance before writing it off entirely.”

“No, I’m not reading book reviews. So, you’re going to be living in Chicago, then?”

“Maybe, if this keeps up.”

She heard Zayn typing on his computer.

“I thought you said you were reading?”

“I am; I can read on the computer, you know?”

“I do know that, but you can’t read and type at the same time.”

“Why are you so paranoid about what I’m reading while I’m talking to you?”

“Because I think it has something to do with me,” Perrie said. “And your shadiness is not helping.”

“Yeah…”

“You’re still not listening to me. OK; I’m hanging up. Love you. Bye.”

Seconds later, Zayn pulled the phone away from his ear, seeing that Perrie had, in fact, hung up on him.

He shrugged and dropped the cell next to his computer. Now that he had a definite city, it was easier to look for a job.

He went back to the one he had just been reading. He certainly fit the requirements for it, and he knew that he would need to apply to as many jobs as possible to give him a better shot at actually getting hired somewhere.

He moved his cursor to the bottom of the page, and, taking a deep breath, he clicked on the green button that said ‘Apply.’

\---

When Liam pulled up to Dani’s house that same night, he heard Dani yelling as metal trash can lids crashed against concrete.

Liam hurried out of his car and around the side of the house to the garage, where he found his girlfriend lying starfish style on the floor.

“Uhh, what happened?” he asked carefully.

“Did you know that STOMP has been around for twenty-four years?” Dani asked instead of answering. “Twenty-four years worth of original dance creations using random household objects and I have to come up with something completely new and different in four days.”

“Dani-”

“It’s impossible! How am I supposed to create an original routine? Ever since I found out about the audition, I’ve spent so much time researching what’s been done already, and everything is _so good._ Like, I could never come up with something as wonderful or groundbreaking or breathtaking. Like, I’m just a college senior!”

“A college senior who’s about to graduate Summa Cum Laude with a Dance degree. Of course you can develop something.”

“Plus, I had finals all week,” Dani said, ignoring Liam entirely. She sat up. “I got here at like, 12:30 today, after my last speech this morning, and I’ve been practicing ever since. I just can’t get it to flow right, and it’s the most frustrating thing because I know it can be good.”

“I’m sure it is good. It’s probably amazing.”

“God, all I want to do is go to bed. Or drink; either one. I’m not that picky. But I can’t because I need to get this damn dance figured out! God, why did I spend all that money to go to school and take all those classes if they weren’t going to help me when I need it? Like, I should be able to figure out _something_. Instead, I’m in my parents’ garage, whipping trash can lids through the air and kicking rubber tires around with my feet.”

“That sounds like something that would be awesome on stage!”

“And my mom is mad at me,” Dani continued.

Liam had assumed she would be. Dani was only the second person in her family to graduate college, right after her older sister Sarah.

“She’s been calling relatives all week to tell them not to come to town for graduation and it just sucks.”

Liam sat down next to her, not knowing what to say.

And then Dani let out a loud sob, which Liam wasn’t ready for.

“Dani?”

“What if I don’t get it?” Dani cried.

Liam bit his lower lip, because deep down, despite all of his positive words of encouragement, that had been his biggest hope: that Dani wouldn’t get the part and that she wouldn’t go to London. He knew it was selfish, which was why he hadn’t voiced it to anyone, and he felt guilty about it every time Dani said something about the show, but he couldn’t help it.

“Dani…”

“If I don’t get this part, then all of this will be for nothing and I’ll have missed graduation for no reason.”

He pulled her into his arms and gave her a tight hug. Dani hid her face in his neck, letting her tears fall freely.

“Liam, I need this to work.”

“I know. And it will. Everything’s going to work out.”

“You promise?” Dani asked quietly.

As much as it broke his heart to say it, Liam whispered, “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: My senior year, my two roommates and I actually did break out onto the balcony outside of our apartment window. That was all based on real life! 
> 
> Only two chapters left! Ahhhhh!
> 
>  **Update 8/20/16:** Sorry it's taking so long! I wanted to write the last two chapters together to make sure everything got resolved, which is a good idea in theory, but I wound up writing half of the last chapter first. So it'll take some more time to post. But they're being written, I promise!


	30. Justice Is Served

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so this has definitely been proofread, but for some reason, I feel like it wasn't enough. So if you find any mistakes in it, just let me know!

**_Louis: just tell me when and where. i’ll bring the eggs._ **

**_Niall: No_ **

**_Louis: come on! please???????? it can be after i bring harry home after dinner tonight_ **

**_Niall: Louis, I’m not egging Spencer’s car._ **

**_Louis: of course not. WE are egging Spencer’s car. the prick harassed Harry all semester AND made it so you can’t walk._ **

**_Louis: i only need you to tell me which car is his. i’ll do the rest if you want._ **

**_Niall: No_ **

**_Louis: WHY_ **

**_Niall: I’ve gotten in enough trouble because of him. I’m not getting in any more._ **

**_Louis: so let me do it!_ **

**_Niall: No_ **

**_Louis: please!!!!_ **

**_Niall: NO_ **

**_Louis: fine =(_ **

**_Louis: the fucker will just get off scot-free_ **

**_Louis: must be nice to have such privilege…_ **

**_Niall: Louis…_ **

**_Louis: just saying. he’ll probably go off and be perfectly fine. meanwhile, you don’t get to walk in graduation after busting your ass for four years_ **

**_Louis: and Harry has to remember all the shit spencer said to him this semester_ **

**_Louis: such a shame_ **

**_Niall: I’m going back to bed now. I have to get up and start packing._ **

**_Louis: fine. guess I’ll cry myself to sleep over the wasted opportunity for justice_ **

**_Niall: You’re not Batman. Shut up._ **

**_Louis: =(_ **

\---

The loud crash from somewhere in the apartment followed immediately by yelling should’ve made Harry rush out of his room.

However, he knew his roommates, so he understood there was no cause for concern.

“I told you to wait!” Niall shouted.

“I did wait! I couldn’t hold up your bed any more!” Xander yelled back.

“All you had to do was hold up the frame until I got the risers out from under there. I had one more to get! You almost took my head off!”

“And I told you to do two at a time! If I wake up tomorrow with back problems, I’m gonna kill you!”

“Fuck you, man. Get out of my room!”

“Gladly!”

Harry stopped folding the shirt in his hand and listened very closely. He didn’t hear Xander leave Niall’s room, but instead heard Niall say, “I’m gonna miss you, man.”

Then Xander said, “I’ll miss you, too.”

Seconds later, Harry heard the sounds of hands clapping on backs as the two of them likely started hugging.

Harry rolled his eyes. “Jesus,” he muttered.

It was Friday afternoon, and according to university policy, since they were all scheduled for a final exam today, the four of them had to be moved out by tomorrow. Naturally, they’d all procrastinated on packing until now.

Harry and Niall’s Communication Theory final was this afternoon, but neither of them was required to take it. They didn’t bother telling their resident advisor that, though, so they got the extra day. Xander and Jake each had a final earlier this morning, so as of a few hours ago, they were officially done.

Just then, Jake walked into Harry’s room.

“I hate packing,” he groaned, flopping face first onto Harry’s bed.

“Dude, get up. You’re laying on top of my jeans.”

Jake just grunted and buried his face deeper into the pillow.

“Are you anywhere near done?” Harry asked, grabbing more shirts from his closet and folding them up.

“Sort of. Most of my clothes are packed, my TV’s back in the box, my posters are down and rolled up and all of the snacks I had in there are sealed up. I just have to get my sheets, the clothes I’m wearing today and all of my stuff from the bathroom. And obviously, my chargers and stuff.”

“So why are you complaining? You’re pretty much set.”

“Yeah, but I still have to get it all into my car and my dad’s car. Then I have to get it home and store it somewhere. It’s just such a hassle.”

“Such is life, my friend,” Harry told him. He rolled Jake toward the wall so he could try to get his jeans out from under him.

“Rude. Don’t you care about my struggles at all?”

Harry just shrugged a shoulder.

“Gee, thanks.”

This time, Harry shrugged both shoulders.

“You’re such a dick,” Jake laughed. He grabbed Harry’s pillow and threw at him. Harry caught it and threw it back.

“Throwing pillows?” Harry asked through his laughter. “Really?”

“Whole lot of giggling in here for people who are supposed to be packing,” Niall said, walking into the room. Xander was right behind him.

“Oh, I see you resolved your argument,” Harry joked.

“Yeah we’re good. Nothing a little bro hug can’t fix.”

Jake snorted. “Please don’t ever say ‘bro hug’ again.”

“Why not?” Niall asked, slightly offended.

“Because it’s not a real thing, Irish.” Xander pushed past Niall and sat down on Harry’s bed next to Jake.

“Is everyone just laying on my jeans now?” Harry wondered.

“You only have three pairs,” Jake pointed out. “It’ll take you five seconds to pack them.”

“Still…” Harry muttered.

“So, when’s everyone leaving?” Niall asked.

“Tomorrow,” Jake and Harry said at the same time.

“Tonight,” Xander told them.

The three of them all turned to stare at him.

“You’re leaving tonight?” Niall pouted just a little. “You didn’t mention that.”

Xander sighed. “I know. My dad was going to come up tomorrow, but he texted me a bit ago saying they changed his schedule so he has to work tomorrow morning when he wasn’t supposed to come in until the afternoon. So he has to come down tonight.”

“Wait, so this is like, it?” Niall held his hands up like he was trying to figure it all out. “This is our last night as roommates? The four of us?”

They all looked amongst each other.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Harry said.

“When will your dad be here?” Jake asked.

“He said after dinner time, so probably like, eight,” Xander answered.

“Well we better order some pizza now, then.”

All four of them nodded, and Harry, Jake and Xander slowly turned to look at Niall.

Once Niall realized what was happening, he huffed. “Sure, guys. I’ll call and order. No problem.”

As Niall left Harry’s room, he heard, “We love you!” and “You know our order by heart!”

Niall rolled his eyes when he got to his room, but placed the order anyway. The boys were right: he did have their pizza order memorized.

After he called, he turned toward his desk to find his wallet. Strangely enough, it wasn’t there. He did a quick sweep of his room, but couldn’t find it anywhere. He grabbed his keys, figuring he should check his car. Maybe he left it there when he ran to the liquor store last night.

“Everybody owes ten!” he yelled out toward Harry’s room, where the others still were. “I’ll be right back!”

He opened the door and headed toward the stairs, not bothering to lock the door behind him.

He made his way down the steps and went outside. It was extra bright outside, so it took a second for his eyes to get adjusted. Once they did, he walked toward his car.

Sure enough, the wallet sat in the space between the console and the driver’s seat. He opened the door and reached in, pulling the wallet from its spot. After making sure everything was still in there, he slid it in his pocket and straightened up.

As Niall closed the door, he heard a car quickly approaching. He looked up and saw that it was a bright green SUV, with its windows rolled down and music pouring from inside.

Niall wanted to throw up when he saw who was behind the wheel: Spencer.

He drove right past Niall without a second thought and parked in the lot behind one of the other apartment buildings.

God, Niall could see the car from where he stood. He’d always wondered who drove that hideous thing. To be honest, though, he didn’t know why he was surprised: it suited him. It was just as obnoxious and ugly as Spencer was.

Spencer got out of the car, whistling as he put his hands inside of his pockets like he didn’t have a care in the world. He was perfectly calm and looked very happy with the way life was going for him, and suddenly, anger flared up inside of Niall.

That fucker.

Niall took a deep breath and pulled out of his phone. He texted three simple words to Louis before going back into his building.

**_Niall: Bring the eggs._ **

\---

Louis walked in the front door of his mother’s house that night. She had texted him earlier in the day that he absolutely had to come by. He didn’t know what it could be about. The babies were healthy, as far as he knew. Lottie would be graduating in a month and Jay and Dan were still happily engaged.

There weren’t any approaching emergencies, so he seriously hoped this wouldn’t take too long. He was supposed to pick Harry up at seven so they could go to dinner one more time before Harry moved back to his mom’s house for the summer. Louis was going to spend the night, as well, and would help Harry pack up his stuff once Anne arrived to get him home.

As he shut the door behind him, he saw his mom, Dan and the four sisters who could talk all sitting in the living room.

“Hi,” he said quietly, as six pairs of eyes turned toward him.

“Louis,” Jay greeted. “Perfect timing. The babies are asleep, so shh.”

“What’s going on?” Louis asked. He sat down on the arm of the couch, where Lottie, Fizzy, Daisy and Phoebe were all squeezed together.

“Dan and I are getting married,” Jay announced with no further explanation.

“We know,” Fizzy said.

“Yeah, mom. We were there,” Lottie added.

“No, I don’t mean that. I mean, soon. We’re getting married _soon_. We’ve been talking about it and figuring things out and we want it to happen. We’re ready.”

“How soon?” Louis wondered.

“July 19,” Dan answered. “It’s a Sunday.”

All five Tomlinson children were silent.

“Of this year?” Fizzy asked.

Jay just nodded, the smile finally overtaking her face.

“That’s in like, two months,” Phoebe pointed out.

“You’re really going to plan a wedding in two months?” Lottie wanted to know.

“Well, we sort of already have,” Dan told them.

“Yeah, I’ve been talking to Anne a lot-”

Louis raised his eyebrows. He knew that his mom and Harry’s mom talked, but he hadn’t realized it had been so much that Anne would be involved with wedding plans before he was.

“-and she’s been helping me figure out the important things. Plus, she has a friend who would be able to cater for us. With a discount, too.”

“And what about music?” Louis asked. “And a venue? Where would it even be?”

“Here,” Dan replied. “We’d have it here: the ceremony in the backyard, food served in the kitchen, the whole nine yards. It’s not like we don’t have the space for it. We’ll keep it small.”

“You’re serious about this,” Lottie said.

“We’re very serious about this,” Jay replied. “I mean, let’s face it: I’m not getting any younger, and everyone is still _here._ The babies are happy and healthy; Lottie, you’ll be busy with college soon; Louis, you’re always working; Fizzy, Phoebe and Daisy, when school starts back in September for you three, it’ll be impossible to get time off for you. It just feels right, so we figure, why not?”

“And when did you say it was?” Louis asked.

“July 19. We’ll need all of your help with this if we want to pull it off, so… We hope we can count on you.”

“Of course, mom,” Fizzy told her. “Whatever you need, we’ll gladly help.”

Dan smiled, and Jay said, “I knew you would come through. Group hu-!”

She never got to finish, as she heard a loud cry from upstairs. Instead, she just sighed and told her children, “Don’t go anywhere. We’re not done here.”

Jay and Dan went upstairs to check on the babies, knowing that if one of them was crying, it wouldn’t be long until the other one was.

“Well, time to go.” Louis stood up and hurried toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Lottie wanted to know. “If we have to suffer through one of mom’s group hugs, so do you!”

“Sorry. Date with Harry. Bye.”

Louis practically launched himself outside and to his car. It wasn’t that he hated group hugs, but, well… He _did_ have a date that he was already running late for. Plus, he had to stop at a grocery store to get a carton of eggs. Maybe he’d get caught up on his hugs later.

\---

“So I’ve been thinking,” Harry said later on that evening. Harry and Louis sat at their table at Angelo’s, waiting for their food to arrive.

“About?”

“Well, remember how we were talking about going somewhere to celebrate the end of the year and stuff?”

Louis nodded. “Yeah. Did you pick a place?”

“I think so.”

Louis waited for Harry to say something. “And?”

“Well, it might seem a little crazy, and sort of big for our first real trip together, but, how about Miami?”

Louis sat back in his seat. “I’m listening.”

“Really?”

“Of course, babe.”

Harry’s excitement magnified now that he knew Louis wouldn’t laugh at the idea. “OK, so, I was sort of looking already, but I found this one hotel where we could stay. It looks really nice, and it got a lot of positive reviews. And there’s golf nearby and we could go snorkeling or parasailing if we want. Plus, there’s museums, and the beach is like, right there. And if we go to Miami, it’ll be cheaper than if we went to like, the Caribbean, which was my original plan, but-”

“Harry, you’re rambling,” Louis said, interrupting him.

“Right. So, um, I was thinking maybe Miami?”

“I love it. Let’s do it.”

“Really?” Harry beamed.

“I’ve never been to Miami, but I hear they have good clubs and bars, and uh, I think some guys even wear Speedos on the beach…”

“Oh, is that a hint?”

Louis shrugged. “I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to you wearing a Speedo. It’s your choice, of course. Don’t feel any pressure from me.”

Harry laughed. “Yup. No pressure felt.”

“There is, um, one thing I want you to wear while we’re away, though.”

“And what’s that?”

“Um, well hang on; it’s in the car.”

Louis jumped up, hurrying out the door, while Harry tried not to be too anxious about what he might be getting.

A minute later, Louis returned, carrying a white box in his hand.

Harry’s eyes widened, and immediately, he felt his heart start to race. He wondered what was in that box and what Louis was going to say when he gave it to him. He knew rings came in boxes, but he really hoped it wasn’t a ring. It was way too soon. It would never work. It would-

“It’s not a ring,” Louis said, sitting back down. “So stop working yourself into a frenzy.”

Harry cleared his throat, willing himself to calm down. He tried to deny that. “I wasn’t-”

The look on Louis’ face instantly shut him up.

“What is it, then?”

“OK, so I wanted to give this to you months ago, but of course, when I went to buy it, the store was sold out and I had to wait for a new shipment to get delivered, and then I was waiting for a good opportunity to give it to you. So, I figure this is as good a time as any.”

He opened the box and Harry gasped at what was inside. It was the [watch](http://img1.cohimg.net/is/image/Coach/w4013_nav_a0?fmt=jpeg&wid=1034&qlt=75,1&op_sharpen=1&resMode=bicub&op_usm=1,1,6,0&iccEmbed=0) that he had fallen in love with in Atlantic City.

“Louis…”

“Don’t tell me that you can’t accept it.”

Harry licked his lips before pulling the bottom one in between his teeth.

“Look, we had a rough year,” Louis started, “and I wanted to give you something to show how thankful I am for you still wanting to put up with me. Besides, I saw how much you loved this when we were down there, and like I said, I wanted to give it to you before but the damn store sold out of them before I could buy one.”

“Louis, if anyone should be buying expensive gifts, it's me,” Harry said once Louis finished. “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I don’t deserve how wonderful you were throughout this year. You said that I put up with you, but I don’t know how you continued dealing with me and all my shit. You were a fucking saint this year, and I don’t think I could ever thank you enough for that.”

Louis put the watch down and took Harry’s hands in his own. He gave a kiss to the back of each one.

“I’m just glad we didn’t give up; and that we kept on fighting every single day.”

Harry silently agreed.

“Now will you wear the watch?”

Harry slowly started to smile and nodded.

Feeling victorious, Louis took the watch out of the case and slid it onto Harry’s wrist. After fiddling with the clasp for a moment, it was finally secured.

“Do you still like it?” Louis asked.

Harry had to tear his gaze away from the watch before he could answer.

“I absolutely love it,” he said honestly. “And I love you.”

“I love you, too. And hey, I have some exciting news for you.”

“You do?”

“Yup. Mom and Dan are getting married. Like, soon.”

“How soon?” Harry asked.

“July 19.”

“Of this year?” Harry exclaimed.

Louis shushed him as a few nearby tables glanced over at them.

“Yes, you crazy person. So, in two months. Apparently, our moms have been making wedding plans without telling anyone.”

“I can’t believe she didn’t tell me. I’m gonna yell at her when she comes to pick me up tomorrow.”

“No, you won’t.”

Harry sighed. “You’re right; I won’t. But I’m really mad at her. Have they planned a lot already?”

“I don’t know; Mom just told me before I left to come get you. But yeah, July 19… Um, will you be my date?”

Harry snorted. “As if you could keep me away. Of course I will.”

Louis laughed. “Good.”

“This is so exciting! I have to figure out what to wear. And what to get them! Is there anything that they need? Like servingware or um, place settings or something?”

“Harry, they already have established careers and finances and have been living together for the past few months. Plus, you’re like family. I don’t think you’re required to bring anything.”

Harry glared at him. “Are you seriously suggesting I turn up to your mother’s wedding without a gift?”

“Of course not,” Louis immediately answered. “I’ll find out what they need.”

“Thank you... Wow. Miami, your mom’s wedding, moving in together… I think this will be a really great summer.”

Louis took Harry’s hand in his. “Agreed, babe. Definitely agreed.”

\---

“[This](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a9xvCAeKqDw/UIWc-4Vb_pI/AAAAAAAJqrM/j7u0p9VyZdM/s1600/Renault-DCross-2.jpg) is the kind of car Spencer drives?” Louis asked in disbelief as he stood right in front of it. “God, he’s just asking to be egged.”

“Tell me about it.” Niall just shook his head.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Niall stared at Louis. “You’re not seriously asking me that after harassing me this morning? Blowing up my phone so I couldn’t sleep past eight?”

“Just making sure.”

Louis opened the carton of eggs in his hand, and they each took one. It was just after midnight and the parking lot behind the apartment building was only half-full. Both of them hoped that no one would look out and see them in the parking lot. They also hoped that the hats and jackets they wore would disguise them in the darkness.

“You ready?” Louis whispered.

Instead of answering, Niall wound back and hurled an egg at the driver’s side of Spencer’s car.

“Feel good?”

“Fuck, yes. Give me another one.”

“I’ve created a monster,” Louis said as Niall snatched up a second egg.

Once Niall threw that one, Louis grinned and chucked an egg at the hood of the car. They took turns after that, each one feeling better than the last.

“You get the last one.” Louis held out the carton for Niall.

“Nah, man, you should. It’s only fair.”

“No, seriously. He fucked you over more than me. Take it.”

“No, you.”

“How about me?”

They both jumped and turned around, breathing a sigh of relief when they saw it was Harry.

“What are you doing here?” Louis asked him.

“You don’t know by now that I know when you leave the bed?” Harry smirked. “I figured something was up when the two of you left the apartment. Didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was, really. So I followed you. How do you feel?”

“I feel amazing,” Niall said simply.

“Pretty damn good,” Louis added. “You seriously want this egg, though?”

Harry shrugged. “I threw one at Tyler’s car. Seems only right I throw one at Spencer’s, too.”

“Well, then,” Louis said, holding out the carton, “it’s all yours.”

Harry took the egg and stared at it for a moment before turning his attention to the car in front of him. He recalled the past semester, hearing every disgusting word Spencer muttered. He thought about Spencer not getting any real consequences while Niall was being punished for defending his friend.

And then Harry was angry. He glared at the car, wishing it could be Spencer for just a second. Then he hurled the egg as hard as he could at the windshield, high up so that it was near the rearview mirror.

Harry took a deep breath, feeling complete satisfaction as the egg dripped down the glass.

Louis felt his eyebrows rise. He didn’t think his boyfriend had it in him, but the proof was right in front of him.

“Fuck, yeah,” Niall said, holding up a hand for a high-five. Harry grinned and gave it to him.

“Let’s get out of here,” Louis suggested.

Harry nodded and flipped off the car with both hands before running back toward their building.

Niall and Louis exchanged a look, still surprised by Harry. They quickly followed him, disposing of the egg carton in the dumpster they passed as they went inside.

“I’m gonna miss stuff like this,” Niall told them as they walked up the stairs.

“What? Defacing other people’s property?” Harry wondered.

“Yeah. I mean, we’re like, banned from Wal-Mart, so I guess this is a close second.”

Louis snorted. “Oh, yeah. Harvey. Hope he’s doing good.”

“I’m sure he is. There’s bound to be other trouble makers paying him late night visits.”

“Maybe we should pay him another one,” Harry suggested. “But like, next year, when we’ve all graduated and got nothing to lose.”

The three of them stopped, just outside of the apartment door.

“Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?” Louis asked jokingly.

Harry smiled and shrugged, opening the door.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised,” Niall said. “I mean, Harry _is_ the one who popped out the screen so we could sneak out onto the balcony.”

Louis’ eyes widened. “You _what_?”

Niall’s mouth dropped as he remembered that Harry asked them not to tell Louis about that until after they moved out, for fear of Louis wanting to go out there again.

Harry cleared his throat. “Uhh, I’m going to bed.”

“Harry Edward Styles, you broke out onto the balcony? Without me? We’re not finished here!”

Louis followed Harry into the bedroom and the door shut behind them.

Niall just laughed quietly to himself, going into his room.

Just one more thing he was going to miss.

\---

Niall glanced back at Xander’s closed and locked door one more time as he brought the rest of his bags out to the living room.

Saying goodbye to him last night had been tough. After helping Xander pack up his stuff into both his and his dad’s cars, Xander had given big hugs to Niall, Jake and Harry.

Luckily, no one cried - although Niall was sure he’d teared up a bit - but today would be different. Now Niall had to say goodbye to his other two roommates.

Jake’s parents were already here, and had started taking his things, including the futon, down to his dad’s truck.

Louis sat on the living room couch and Harry was looking in all of the rooms to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything else.

Niall put his bag down on the floor, but before he could say anything, he felt his phone vibrate.

**_Just got off 295. Be there soon._ **

It was from his mom, so by the time Jake’s parents came up to get the last of his stuff, she would probably be here.

“OK. I think I got everything,” Harry said, returning to the living room.

“Did you check your room?” Louis asked sarcastically.

Harry started to turn back, but quickly realized that Louis was just joking.

“Ha ha.” Harry sat down on the couch. “Sue me if I want to make sure I don’t forget anything.”

“I do see one thing you forgot, though,” Louis said.

“What’s that?”

“To tell me you guys were breaking out onto the balcony.”

Harry sighed, and Niall started laughing.

“Louis, it was part of roommate bonding! Niall was sad and we wanted to cheer him up. We were being good roommates.”

“Niall wasn’t a very good roommate last year when he wouldn’t let me go onto the balcony of the guys below us.”

“Because you would’ve gotten busted,” Niall told him. “The four of us were discreet about it. And we didn’t get caught.”

“Whatever.”

“Louis, stop pouting,” Jake said as he walked back into the apartment. “Break onto someone else’s balcony next year.”

Louis scoffed. “Yeah, because that wouldn’t be weird. I’ll just knock on some stranger’s door and say, ‘Hi, do you mind if I go into your apartment and pop out the screen on your second-story window? I brought my own screwdriver.’ Yeah, no thanks.”

Just then, Jake’s mom came back in, so all conversations of forbidden activities came to a halt.

“Jake, what else do I have to get?” she asked.

“Um, can you carry these two bags?” He grabbed two heavy-looking suitcases and gave them to her.

Her eyes widened at how much they weighed, but said, “Sure I can. That’s why there’s an elevator.”

She slowly brought the bags out into the hallway. They heard the elevator ding a few seconds later.

Niall felt his phone go off again. He read the message he had waiting for him and said, “It’s my mom. She’s here.”

He left the apartment and headed downstairs, leaving Louis, Harry and Jake alone.

“I think I’m done here,” Jake told them, taking another look around.

“Well all right,” Harry said, standing up. “Two years of living together and it all comes down to this.”

“No more late diner runs or all-night study sessions. Who’s going to make flash cards for me so I can prep for my bio quizzes?”

“I still can! You just might have to drive down to see me if you want to get them.”

Jake laughed. “Yeah, right. I’ll make my own. There’s apps for that, right?”

“Yeah, if you want the lame version, where nobody kicks you if you get an answer wrong.”

“Gee, how will I live without that?” Jake muttered.

Harry gently punched Jake in the shoulder.

“I’m gonna miss you, man,” Jake admitted. “You were sort of the best roommate ever.”

“Yeah. Same to you.”

Harry and Jake smiled at each other for a moment before wordlessly moving into a hug.

“Love you, man,” Harry whispered.

“Love you, too.”

“Take care of yourself, all right?”

“I will,” Jake promised. “You two take care of each other, yeah?”

Harry just nodded.

They briefly tightened their hug before letting go. Nobody commented on the sudden redness around their eyes.

“Lou, I’ll see you around?” Jake asked.

Louis nodded. “Definitely.”

“Good. Take care of the kid, OK?”

Harry rolled his eyes at the term ‘kid.’ He was only a few months younger than Jake. Louis just chuckled. “I will.”

“Good.”

Jake took a deep breath and looked back at Harry. “OK, well, I’ll see you later?”

Harry nodded, pressing his lips together and looking like he was holding back more tears.

“I’ll text you,” Jake said, backing toward the door.

“I’ll answer,” Harry replied.

Jake snorted. “Asshole.”

Harry let out a loud laugh, watching as Jake stepped out into the hallway.

“Best roommate ever,” Jake said once more.

“Best ever,” Harry repeated, his voice heavy.

With a small wave, Jake started walking away. Harry let out a shuddery breath a moment later.

He sat down next to Louis, who started rubbing Harry’s back. The two of them sat there for just a moment before Louis asked, “Do you regret it?”

“What?”

“Living with me instead of him?”

Harry stiffened before looking over at Louis. “Not for a second. Don’t ever think that, OK?”

Louis nodded and leaned in, kissing Harry on his forehead.

“Yes, mom,” Niall said a few minutes later as he walked into the apartment with his mother, “Jake’s parents are very nice people.”

When he saw Louis and Harry sitting there, Niall just rolled his eyes. “My mom met Jake’s parents downstairs. She just had a _lovely_ ten-minute conversation with them.”

Harry and Louis just smiled.

“Did you say good-bye to Jake?” Harry asked.

“Yeah. Gave him a big hug and everything. I’ll miss that kid.”

Harry nodded in agreement.

“OK, what’s first?” Niall’s mom, Maura, wondered.

Wordlessly, Harry and Louis stood up and helped carry some of Niall’s heavier stuff down to the cars.

On the second trip down, Harry saw his mom pull up and park.

He went over to the car, giving her a big hug when she got out. “We’re just finishing up helping Niall with his stuff and then we can get mine.”

“OK, take your time,” Anne said. She waved at Niall’s mom and said, “Hi, Maura!”

“Anne! I didn’t see you come up. How have you been?”

“Good, and you?”

“Been pretty well,” Maura answered. “Can’t believe it’s time to move them out already.”

“Oh, I know! Seems like the year just started. Plus, Harry won’t be living on campus any more…”

Niall turned to Louis and Harry before tilting his head toward the building, signaling that they should just go finish moving stuff. Their moms might be there awhile.

The three of them went back to the apartment, grabbing the last of Niall’s things, which consisted of his television, another suitcase and a box of snack foods. They brought it down to Niall’s car and loaded it up before turning right back around to start loading Harry’s things into either his or Anne’s car.

They worked silently, knowing what was soon coming but not wanting to face it.

However, with the three of them moving quickly, they were finished all too soon.

“OK, so…” Niall said. He looked around the living room one last time. “Um, Harry, I’ll see you for graduation?”

“Wouldn’t miss it, you know that.”

Niall nodded. “Louis, I’ll see you… around? Maybe for Zayn’s party?”

“Hopefully sooner, but definitely then,” Louis replied.

Zayn was having a Fourth of July party at his uncle’s house. Apparently, his uncle was going to Sydney for the summer, and Zayn planned on using the place as much as he could.

“Cool, cool.” Niall put his hands on his hips, and stood straight up, like he was unsure of what to do. Harry took pity on him and pulled him into a hug.

“Can’t believe it’s really happening,” Niall muttered into Harry’s shoulder.

“I know. But hey, we had an amazing year. We had some good times, didn’t we?”

“We did.” Niall took a step back, his face a little redder than it had been a few seconds ago. “Still, it’s all surreal.”

“It’ll be even weirder when you go by the office one last time on graduation day,” Louis pointed out. “That was the weirdest part of it all for me.”

Niall’s eyes widened. “Oh, God. I’m done for.”

Harry and Louis smiled.

“OK, well let me go before I get emotional or some shit. Roommate, Former Roommate, it’s been real.”

Niall gave Harry another quick hug and pulled Louis into one, as well, before turning and hurriedly exiting the apartment.

“See you Tuesday, Harry!” he called out before the door shut behind him.

Harry sighed. “OK. Let’s go.”

“You sure?” Louis asked. “Do you want to look around again?”

Harry shook his head. “Nah. I have to go now or I never will.”

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope that had his information on it. Inside of the envelope was his key. He dropped it on the kitchen counter and turned toward Louis.

“I can’t wait to live with you,” he said, wrapping his arms around Louis’ neck.

“And you will. Soon,” Louis promised. He leaned up and kissed Harry firmly on the lips. They moved backward a step so that Harry’s back was pressed into the counter where he’d just put his key.

Before it could go any farther, Harry gently pushed Louis back.

“OK, now we really have to go.”

Harry laced their fingers together and pulled Louis out of the apartment. He took a deep breath before shutting the door behind him for the last time.

“Hey, if you’re not doing anything after graduation,” Louis said as they walked down the steps, “you should come by the house. I mean, I’ll have to work, but you can go see the babies and my mom if you want, and maybe stay for dinner? Since you’ll be in the area.”

Harry had a smile on his face before Louis could even finish his thought. “That sounds great. I need to talk wedding details with your mom.”

Louis shook his head. “I feel like you’ll be more involved in this than Dan has been, and Dan’s been doing a lot so far.”

“No, I would never do that. But I do have a lot of questions, so…”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“You love me, though.” Harry just grinned.

Louis couldn’t help but return it. “Yeah, I do.”

They walked out of the building then, and saw Anne still leaning up against her car.

“I was about to send out a search party for you two,” she joked, taking a step forward.

“Sorry, mom.”

“It’s OK. Hi, Louis.”

“Hi, Anne.”

Louis gave her a warm hug, since he hadn’t been able to before.

“You ready to go?” Anne asked Harry. “It’s my last summer of you living at home, so we need to make the most of it. Since you have to go be an adult and live with your boyfriend.”

“Mom, stop whining,” Harry said. He knew she was only teasing, of course, but it didn’t make her statement any less true.

“Maybe. Louis, are you coming up with us today?”

“Uhh…” Louis looked at Harry, trying to decide what his boyfriend wanted him to say. He hadn’t been planning on going to Harry’s house today. He’d thought Harry would just want to go home and start spending quality time with his parents.

But the hopeful look on his boyfriend’s face said otherwise. Plus, it was Saturday. It wasn’t like there was somewhere Louis needed to be.

“Sure, I can come up for a little while,” he decided.

Harry started smiling, so Louis knew he made the right choice.

“Good. So I’ll see you boys at the house, then.”

The two of them nodded, and Anne got into her car.

“I guess I’ll see you there?” Harry asked, starting to back away toward his car a few spaces away.

“Race you,” Louis said.

“Louis, don’t you dare race me on the highway.”

Louis winked and ran toward his car.

“Louis! If I get a speeding ticket, you’re paying for it!”

“Deal!” Louis shouted, pulling his keys out of his pocket.

Harry shook his head, still smiling to himself.

If this was what life would be like having Louis around all the time, he couldn’t wait for it to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have more than 4K words of the next chapter written, and I'm really trying to post it this week. I'm literally working on it as you read this, so God help me, I'll finish ASAP! Feel free to bug me on Tumblr or in the comments here to serve as extra motivation.


	31. Bigger and Better Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter takes place on the same day - the day of graduation!

Dani woke up on Tuesday morning feeling like she had a heavy weight on her chest. Her audition was today: in four hours, to be exact. That meant that in four hours and about five minutes, she would be finished, and the decision of whether she got the job or not would be in the hands of the casting directors.

Of course, graduation was also in a few hours, and she made a mental note to text a ‘Congratulations!’ to her friends at some point today.

The bed shifted beside her, and Dani looked over to see Liam struggling to open his eyes. The two of them had come up last night and checked into their hotel after Liam finished work. She was so thankful that he could come with her. She was nervous enough as it was; the thought of being by herself right now was scary enough to give her a full-on panic attack.

“Hey,” he whispered, taking a deep breath.

“Hi,” she quietly spoke back.

“Do you want to go get breakfast?”

Dani shook her head. “No. Not hungry.”

“You have to get something in your stomach,” Liam said gently. “Remember, you have time to let it digest. That’s why we’re awake so early. You’ll have plenty of time to stretch and get warmed up before the audition.”

Another reason why Dani was happy Liam was there: he would keep her on track.

“OK. Let’s go.”

Liam nodded, but didn’t move.

Dani just smiled. “Li. Come on; get up.”

“Five more minutes.”

“Liam…”

“No,” he whined. He pulled the blanket over his head, as if that would hide his position.

Dani rolled her eyes and got up to her knees before slowly pushing Liam over enough so that he fell off the bed.

He hit the ground with an ‘oof!’ and Dani started laughing when Liam finally opened his eyes enough to look up at her.

“What was that for?”

Dani shrugged. “You said we had to get breakfast. Let’s go.”

“You’re kind of mean in the morning, you know that?”

“You’ve mentioned that before. Now come on.”

They quickly dressed and went downstairs to the hotel dining room, where a continental breakfast was being served. Dani didn’t want anything too heavy in her stomach, so she went with oatmeal and fruit. She got a small cup of coffee to wake her up a little bit, too.

Liam, on the other hand, got pancakes, bacon, eggs and juice. Dani resisted the urge to kick him as he dug in.

They ate in silence, just watching the other hotel guests come straggling in a few at a time.

“Stop thinking,” Liam said.

Dani, who had been zoning out, looked over at him. “What?”

“You’re overthinking everything. I can see it on your face.”

“I’m not overthinking anything. I was _under_ thinking, actually. If that’s even a word.”

“You’re asking _me_ if something is a word?”

Dani smiled. “Yeah, forgot who I was talking to for a second there. But yeah, I was actually just staring off into space. I think I’m ready for today.”

“Good. You’ve been practicing for so long and trying all kinds of new moves. You’ve worked your ass off. All that’s left to do now is to just go do it.”

“I know. I’m trying to think of it as just another run through, but I know it’s not. It’s… _it._ And if I don’t get it, I have to start thinking of a Plan B.”

“Don’t think like that,” Liam said. “Just keep focusing on your routine and nailing the moves. Nothing else matters today.”

“You’re right.” Dani nodded. “Nothing else matters today.”

They soon finished their breakfast and went back upstairs to their room. Liam jumped in the shower while Dani got warmed up.

As she stretched her arms up, cracking her back, she thought about her dance. When she sat on the floor and leaned to one side, she recalled how she would throw sand on the floor and slide across it, making noise as she moved. She got up onto her knees and bent backward so she could grab onto her ankles, remembering the jumps she would be making off the giant tires. She stood up and lunged forward, thinking about the rhythm she would be making against the steel wall.

Every stretch she did brought back a memory of a certain step, one that had been choreographed to perfection, all so she could perform it for a bunch of strangers at eleven o’clock.

She heard the shower shut off, and a few minutes later, Liam emerged with a towel around his waist.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“I feel good,” she told him. She stretched her arms up once more before heading toward the bathroom. “I’m ready.”

She quickly took her shower, letting the hot water run all over her muscles. She wanted to be nice and loose for this performance. It was only the biggest one of her life.

When she finished, she exited the bathroom, assuming Liam would be on the bed, looking through his phone or something. Instead, she was faced with an empty room.

Shrugging it off, she got dressed and fixed her curly hair so that it was up and off the back of her neck. She didn’t want to have to worry about it.

By the time she was hanging up her towel in the bathroom, she heard Liam returning.

“Dani?” he called, letting the door swing shut behind him.

“Yeah?” she walked out and found Liam holding a dozen red roses in his hand.

She gasped. “Liam. They’re beautiful.”

“Just like you. And you’re going to kill it today.”

Dani accepted the flowers from Liam and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She felt him kiss her on the side of her head.

“You’re welcome.”

She pulled back and smelled the roses. “Um, are you ready to go? I have to check in at ten.”

It was only nine, and the studio was just a few blocks away, so they still had plenty of time. But Liam didn’t point that out. He just nodded.

“Yeah; ready when you are.”

Dani smiled and got a vase from the desk in the corner. She filled it with water and put the flowers in it. She double-checked her duffel bag, the one she took with her to every dance rehearsal, audition and everything else. It had her iPod, an extra pair of tights and warm-up clothes, deodorant, a comb, hairspray, hair ties, face wipes, a hand towel, band-aids and mints. She grabbed her dance shoes from where she had placed them by the door and put them in, too. She put on her sneakers for the walk over.

Once she was certain she was ready, she looked over to Liam, who was waiting patiently for her.

“OK. Let’s go.”

Liam just nodded. He grabbed his laptop case from where it sat on the armchair next to their bed, checked that his computer was in it and followed her out.

They walked down the hallway toward the elevator in silence. Dani focused on her breathing to keep herself calm as the realization of where she was going finally started to set in.

Noticing the sudden tension in her form, Liam grabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. Dani just held on to it, staring straight ahead and trying to maintain her focus.

When the elevator doors opened, the two of them walked out and Dani took the lead. She’d used Google Maps, Mapquest, Yahoo Maps and the Maps app on her phone multiple times since they’d arrived yesterday to plot out the exact path to the studio. She had the route memorized. It wasn’t far; only four blocks between the two buildings. She knew it should take about seven minutes to get there from the hotel, as they only had to turn down one street and cross one intersection.

As they walked through the busy streets of New York City, Dani briefly lost her concentration to take in her surroundings. People pushed past them on either side, likely trying to get to work on time. Every building they walked by was so tall that Dani had to crane her neck to see the top. Cars whizzed by, horns blaring at pedestrians who dared to cross before the light turned. Dani took a deep breath, unfortunately inhaling the gross smell emitting from a nearby manhole.

She felt Liam squeeze her hand again, and she looked over at him to see that he was smiling at her. He’d probably been watching her eyes dart all around, looking at everything that she didn’t see on a regular basis.

Right on time, they arrived at the studio. Liam held the door open for her to go in, and she walked up to the desk on the right side of the room.

“Hi. Danielle Peazer, checking in for my eleven o’clock audition.”

The girl raised an eyebrow, but looked through her paperwork anyway.

“You’re early,” she commented, highlighting Dani’s name on her schedule. “That’s good.”

“Thanks,” Dani said happily.

“So, you can make use of our warm-up rooms while you wait. Go through that door, and there are two rooms on either side. There’s only one other person back there right now, so take your pick. When it’s your turn, the audition room is through there.”

She pointed straight ahead of her toward a closed door. Dani looked at it, waiting for it to open up to reveal another dancer being offered the job.

She quickly shook her head, knowing that wouldn’t be happening. She still had just as much of a shot at getting it as anybody else did.

“I am sorry to say, though, no one else is allowed in the warm-up rooms. So, sir, you’re free to wait out here for your girlfriend.”

“You really don’t have to wait here,” Dani said to Liam. “It’s going to be a while.”

“No, it’s fine,” Liam told her. He shrugged the shoulder that the strap of his laptop case rested on. “I have this. There’s a Starbucks across the street. Think I’ll go in there and get some work done.”

“OK. So this is it.”

“This is it.”

Liam opened his arms and Dani shuffled into them, giving him a huge hug.

“Good luck,” Liam whispered. “Break a leg. You’ve got this.”

Dani nodded. “I’ve got this.”

She moved back just enough to softly kiss him.

“I love you,” she told him a moment later once she’d pulled away.

“Love you, too. You got this.”

She gave him a quick smile and took a step back. With one last glance, she turned around and walked toward the warm-up rooms. She pushed open the main door and saw, just as she was told, that there were four doors in total.

She went to the second one on her right and found that it was empty. She dropped her bag at the front of the room and pulled out her iPod. She put her headphones in and clipped the shuffle to her shirt.

Dani turned it on and put on a random dance playlist. She started doing her stretches, adding some more jumps and leaps than she had in the hotel room. Once she felt a bit more awake, she put on the song that she would be dancing to. It instantly filled her ears.

“I got this,” she repeated.

Without another word, she practiced her song. With every move, she felt more confident in herself.

She had this.

\---

Niall sat at the head of the editors’ table with his feet propped up. Everyone had agreed to meet before graduation this year, so he was just waiting for people to show up.

He’d ‘forgotten’ to give his office key back just for this moment: so he could sit in the office for a few uninterrupted minutes by himself.

As much as he liked to complain about working here, he could admit as well as anyone else that he loved the newspaper. If he hadn’t joined, he absolutely wouldn’t be the person he is today. He probably would’ve changed majors, wouldn’t have a majority of his friends and definitely wouldn’t have met Josh.

Even though he wasn’t walking in an hour with his friends, he still loved everything about his college experience: late night studying and trips to the diner, Wal-Mart runs with the guys, spontaneous dates with Josh and of course, spending hours upon hours in this very office.

He got up and walked over to his desk, remembering the countless interviews that had taken place over the phone that sat there. He could easily recall editing stories from his writers and typing up the ones that he’d taken on at the last minute. This room held so many memories over the past few years, and they were ones he wouldn’t soon forget.

And then he remembered. He went over to the editors’ table and found a Sharpie that sat in a pencil cup in the middle of it. He returned to his section of the office and found a blank part of the office’s cinderblock wall so he could leave a message for Casey. After a minute of thinking, he had the perfect one.

 

_Varsity (because that’s your new nickname),_

_I can’t think of anyone better to leave in charge of the Sports section. You’ll kick ass and take names now that I’m gone. Not like you didn’t do that already, but now you will more than ever._

_I’ll miss working with you. I know it took some time to get to, but I truly consider you one of my closest friends, and I can’t believe I’m really leaving._

_Take care of Sports. Teach Mike a lot. And don’t forget about me._

_If you do, I’ll just have to come back and remind you who your favorite Irishman is._

_Niall_

“Wow, defacing school property, huh?”

Niall capped the Sharpie and turned to see Casey walking in with Eleanor.

“What?” he asked innocently. “It’s tradition. El, here.”

He tossed the marker over to her. She caught it easily and said, “Thanks. I almost forgot about this.”

“So did I; don’t worry.”

“You almost forgot to leave me my cheesy message that I’ll look at every single day?” Casey asked grumpily as Eleanor walked over to the Features section.

“ _Almost_ being the keyword,” Niall said. “And what are you doing here? I didn’t think you were coming.”

“I’m showing support. Duh! I mean, I know you’re not walking, but still.”

“Thanks.”

He pulled her into a hug and started swaying from side to side.

“You can let me go whenever you want,” Casey muttered against Niall’s shoulder.

“Shh. I’m trying to be sweet; now let me.”

Casey laughed and pushed away from Niall, who had a huge grin on his face, too.

Just then, the door opened, and Leigh-Anne, Jade and Jesy came strolling in.

“Ooh, do we have another Sharpie?” Leigh-Anne wondered. “I need to leave something for Hurley.”

“If not, you can use this one,” Eleanor called over. “I’m almost done this one for KJ.”

“Can’t believe this is really happening,” Jade said sadly. “Like, most of my college friendships were formed here in this room. And now we have to leave.”

“Yeah, but we get to be real adults,” Niall pointed out. “No more studying or speeches or being woken up by frats at four in the morning.”

“Yeah, and that just gets replaced by job hunting and paying off student loans,” Jesy stated. “God, I’ll miss living here.”

“Now we have to move back in with our parents.” Leigh-Anne rolled her eyes. “It sucks.”

“You think _that_ sucks?” Eleanor asked as she capped her Sharpie. “What sucks is living in an _actual_ apartment and now having to move back home. I feel like I failed as an adult and I’m not really even an adult yet.”

“You guys are kind of negative, you know that?” Casey asked, interrupting them all. “It’s your Graduation Day! You’re all done with school! Come on; be excited! Four years is long enough here, don’t you think? It’s time to start the new phase of your lives! How awesome is that?”

The seniors all muttered to themselves, and Casey rolled her eyes. “You guys are ridiculous. I can’t wait to graduate.”

“You say that now,” Jade told her. “But you won’t when it’s your turn.”

“That’s when you’ll really get it,” Eleanor said. “I mean, yeah, it’s awesome to be done with school, but we’re comfortable here. Safe, even. Like, we know everybody and everything having to do with this campus and now we have to go to the big world and be real adults with degrees where people expect so much more of us. We don’t know when we’ll see our friends again because we’re all from different places and we don’t know how successful we’ll be. It’s unpredictable out there, but when we’re here, it’s better because we can kind of create our own happiness and success. It’s just unnerving. Completely awesome, of course, but very scary.”

Jesy smiled. “Well said, El.”

Casey bit her lower lip. “Yeah, I can understand that. Well, how about this? For the next few hours, you all have to promise to just be happy. Worry about everything on the drive home, but for now, be excited. How about that?”

She held up her right pinky finger and, one by one, made each senior promise her.

“There,” she said victoriously. “You all pinky promised. And you can’t break one of those.”

“Very true,” Jade agreed.

“I see you got most of the spaghetti sauce out of the carpets,” Niall said, changing the subject entirely.

Casey shuddered. “God, that was a nightmare. Luckily, Dani bought a whole bunch of cleaning supplies for us. After you _lovely_ seniors all ran out on us, she texted Hurley and told him to look outside the office door. She left rags and carpet cleaner and stuff in a big bucket so we could clean.”

“That was my idea, by the way,” El cut in. “Actually, she wanted to give them all to you straight away, but I told her to let you guys sweat it out for a minute.”

“Oh, thanks for that.”

“You’re very welcome.”

Niall sat down in the chair at his desk. “God, we’ve had some good times here.”

“Remember that day Higgins and Teasdale randomly showed up on a Wednesday night?” Casey asked. “God, it was so awkward having them here.”

“Yeah, Casey, you’re too young to remember this,” Niall started, “but they used to be here every Wednesday and Thursday to help read through articles.”

“Why?”

“Because they were a lot more controlling of the paper back then. It was toward the end of my sophomore year that we all banded together and had a meeting with them. We said that we felt that we were mature enough to handle being on our own on production nights, and that we didn’t need them. We said it a lot nicer than that, but you know what I mean.”

“So what happened?” Casey wondered.

“Well, they put us on a probationary period. They gave us a few issues to work on alone, but they said that if anything went wrong with the content, they would come back. And of course, we had to call them if there were any major issues. But we did all right, and then they stopped coming in on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It was awesome.”

“It was pretty impressive that we all managed to agree on something,” El said. “Usually, we don’t always, and there’s always someone with a different opinion. Although, let’s be honest: I’m pretty sure it was Louis’ idea and we all just went with it.”

The group started laughing, knowing it was probably true. Louis was very persuasive.

“How about that time we had the fire drill?” El asked. “When we had to evacuate the building and couldn’t come back in for two hours?”

“And it was in February!” Casey recalled. “Yes, and nobody brought their coats, so we were all just shivering in a group huddle out on the lawn. That was horrible.”

“Whose bright idea was it to just go to Trailblazer’s and have a group dinner?” Leigh-Anne asked. “Because whoever suggested that was the smartest one out of all of us.”

“I think it was Tyler, actually,” Casey said. “Who knew he could have good ideas?”

Jesy rolled her eyes. “Not me, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, Tyler,” El sighed. “He’s really not that bad, you know, deep down. He’s a little misunderstood. When you work more with him, you realize that he’s sort of all right.”

Jade snorted. “Yeah, right. He’s an annoying little brat. I hope he grows up a lot more in the next few years.”

Leigh-Anne gasped. “Remember that day when Harry ripped him a new one? _Harry,_ of all people?”

“Yes!” Casey said. “What happened there? Because nobody really talked about it, and I felt super weird asking.”

One by one, all of the girls turned to look at Niall, who just sighed.

“Well, I guess seeing as we’re all on the same page about Tyler… He hit on Harry and Louis walked in.”

“What?” they all exclaimed.

Niall nodded. “Yeah, it was that day that Louis came in to surprise Harry and like, a second later, he stormed out and Harry ran after him. Well, they had a huge fight in the parking lot and when Harry came back, Tyler was in his office. And Harry just let go. Tyler had been flirting with Harry leading up until that point, so it’s not like Harry and Louis didn’t see it coming. It was just a lot to take in at the time.”

“I’m gonna make his life hell this year,” Casey promised. “He’s such an asshole.”

“Well, Louis already got some revenge, so you don’t have to go too far.”

“What do you mean?” El asked.

“Uhh, well Louis sort of egged Tyler’s car a few days after that happened.”

“What?” they exclaimed again.

“Yeah. That was the day that Harry ran out of the office and came back holding Louis’ hand, but they were sort of awkward together. That was such a mess. I figured that since Tyler never mentioned it to anyone and Harry didn’t either, I shouldn’t say anything. But since we all seem to dislike Tyler, what the hell?”

“I knew it had to be something big for Harry to go off like that,” El said. “In the two years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him get like, _angry._ ”

“You’d be surprised,” Niall told her. “Harry can hold his own. He can be a badass when he wants to be.”

Just then, the door at the end of the hall opened, and they heard footsteps coming toward the office.

The door opened up, and, like he’d heard his name mentioned, Harry walked in. “What’s everybody still doing here? Come on! We have a graduation to attend.”

“Harry? What are you doing here?” Niall asked.

“Supporting you guys. I got six seniors graduating today and I need to be here for all of them. I just saw X, by the way. He was looking for you.”

“We should head up, anyway,” El said. “It’s almost ten. We have to sign in and whatnot.”

Niall nodded. “Let’s go.”

He followed everybody out, letting the girls go first, and Harry right behind them. He grabbed the door handle and turned around, examining the office one last time. After a moment, he flicked off the lights. With one look around the room, Niall pulled the door shut behind him and hurried to catch up to everyone.

Even though he wasn’t walking today, he was extremely proud of and happy for his friends. And it was time to go show it.

\---

“So, I have something to tell you,” Perrie said after taking a sip of her coffee. 

The two of them were at the diner a few minutes from Perrie’s house. They’d rolled out of bed around ten that morning, gotten dressed and came right down.

The waitress had just walked away after taking their orders, so they had some time to talk uninterruptedly.

“Is this good or bad?” Zayn asked. “Because usually when people start off with ‘I have something to tell you,’ it’s not that great.”

“I think it’s really good. I think I found an apartment.”

“Really?”

Perrie nodded excitedly. “Yeah, I emailed the landlord last night. It’s a one-bedroom apartment, and it’s like ten minutes from Northwestern’s campus. It’s listed in Chicago, but I think it’s sort of on the outskirts, you know what I mean? And it’s a thousand a month, which is pretty much the going rate. But other college kids rented it, and the lease goes up at the end of July. So it’ll be ready by like, the second week of August.”

“That’s awesome! You can probably breathe a lot easier now, huh?”

“Seriously. Like, I knew I would find something, but knowing that there’s something that I actually really like is amazing. I’ll have to show you the pictures later, once I hear back from the landlord.”

“Now all you have to do is get out there,” Zayn said. “I mean, your classes are picked, housing’s taken care of, registration fees are all paid up… You just have to move in and check out the area; find out where everything is.”

“It’s going to be such a change.” Perrie took another sip from her coffee. “Like, I’m so used to everything here, and now I’m moving to a legit city. It’ll be one of the biggest changes ever.”

“But you’re going to love it; I just know it. Like, you’ll be working with all of these people who have the same interests as you. You’re going to be surrounded by professors who have a shit-ton of experience working in magazine publishing and writing. It’ll be the best change of your life.”

Perrie grinned and bit her lower lip. “I’m really excited.”

“You should be. I’m excited for you. You’re going to blow them all away out there.”

“Thanks.”

Before Zayn could continue complimenting Perrie, his phone started ringing. He didn’t know the number, but he answered it anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hello, my name is Harper Jameson and I’m calling for Zayn Malik?”

“This is him.”

“Hi, Zayn. I’m the Associate Curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, and I’m calling about your application for the Collection Manager position.”

Zayn’s eyes widened and he instantly sat straight up. Perrie looked at him with a worried look on her face.

“ _What?_ ” she mouthed across the table.

“Um, could- Could you give me one second? I just want to move somewhere quieter,” Zayn spoke into the phone.

“I’ll be right back,” he whispered to Perrie, who looked a bit nervous about where her boyfriend was suddenly running to.

“Sorry, Ms. Jameson; yes, I’m here,” Zayn said once he was outside of the diner.

“Wonderful. I just wanted to call and let you know that we would like to interview you for the position, if you’re still interested.”

“I am, yes. Very interested.”

“Perfect. Before we go any further, your application says that you still live in New Jersey. Is that correct?”

“Um… Yeah,” Zayn answered. “Will that be a problem?”

“Not at all, as long as you can assure us that you will relocate if we offer you the job. Are you looking to relocate?”

“I am, yes.” He decided to elaborate, but not to include the personal reasons behind the move. “I just feel that there are many more opportunities in big cities like Chicago, and I’ve loved the Art Institute ever since I visited when I was a kid.”

That last part was a lie; he’d never been to Chicago.

“What a well-rehearsed answer,” Harper joked.

Zayn couldn’t hold back a snort.

“Don’t worry, Zayn. We definitely want to interview you. Since you’re not local, we’ll have to set up a Skype interview. How does next week look for you? Let’s say next Tuesday at noon, your time?”

“That sounds perfect, Ms. Jameson.”

“Please, call me Harper. We’ll email you our requirements and other details later on today, OK?”

“Absolutely. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome. Have a great day.”

“Thank you. You do the same.”

They hung up then and Zayn just stared at his phone. Had that really just happened?

He jumped when he heard a banging on the window. He looked up to see Perrie holding her hands up in the air, as if she was asking, ‘What the hell is going on?’

He grinned at her and hurried back inside.

“What just happened?”

“You said rent was a thousand, right?” Zayn asked instead of answering her question.

“What? Yeah, why? What’s going on?”

Zayn just kept grinning. “What if you had a roommate? How much would it be then?”

“I guess five hun-” Perrie stilled. She looked at Zayn, a wary look clearly written across her face. “Zayn, what- Oh, my God, tell me this is what I think it is.”

“I have a job interview next week. A Skype one.”

“With who?”

“The Art Institute of Chicago.”

Perrie took a deep, shuddery breath. If Zayn looked closely enough, he could almost see the tears lining her lower eyelids and the blush covering her cheeks.

“Zayn, this better not be a fucking joke,” Perrie warned. “I swear to God…”

“It’s not a joke,” Zayn promised. “It’s not. I’ve been applying to some jobs out in Chicago. I want to move out there with you. You were right about so many things before. No, I don’t want to do long-distance. And if I get this job, then we wouldn’t have to. But you were definitely right about something else.”

“What’s that?”

“That there’s nothing holding me here. Like, my internship is over and my job isn’t going anywhere. I’ll miss everyone, of course, but I have to move out of my house eventually. Why not go a few hours away with you?”

“And you’re sure you’re OK with this?”

Zayn nodded. “I’ve thought it through a hell of a lot. And Liam and Louis said they would visit if they ever actually missed me. But since Dani is probably moving to London, and Harry’s moving in with Louis, I don’t think they’ll miss me all that much.”

“Of course they’ll miss you.”

“And I’ll miss them, too, but the thought of you being so far away, just… I don’t know. It sucks.”

Perrie laughed. “And all this time, I thought it was just going to suck once September came around.”

“It doesn’t have to. I mean, as long as you still want me to come with you.”

“Of course I still want you to come, loser! God, this is the best news ever! Wait, what’s the job?”

“Oh, right. Um, it’s a Collection Manager at the Art Institute. Basically, I would be assisting the curators in making sure the exhibits are properly taken care of. Like, I make sure that the art we have in storage is packaged the right way, and that everything is catalogued. I’ll do research on pieces in all of the collections. I would make sure that all of the proper paperwork has been filled out on each piece of art and that all contracts are filled out. It’s a lot to deal with, honestly, but I’d get to work with art all day and be in an actual museum.”

“That would be incredible, babe.”

“And I owe it all to you.”

Perrie was confused. “Why would you owe that to me?”

“Because if you weren’t going to Northwestern, I never would’ve applied.”

Perrie rolled her eyes. “Please. You could’ve easily applied to somewhere in Philly and been just fine.”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t be there. Just let me have this cheesy moment, OK?”

Perrie laughed loudly, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“I love you,” Zayn said quietly.

“Love you, too.”

They leaned forward, their lips meeting over the table in a quick kiss.

“We’re going to Chicago,” Perrie whispered.

Zayn winked. “That we are.”

\---

Louis looked over his shoulder at his office. It was just after four in the afternoon, and a few people had already begun leaving the office. It had been a slow news day, with no breaking stories that needed immediate attention. Louis’ coworkers were taking advantage of the beautiful weather outside, it seemed, as it felt like nobody’s attention was really in the office.

Shrugging, he opened a new tab on his computer. He went to Expedia, hoping that he would be able to save money for his and Harry’s trip by booking the plane tickets and hotel together.

They wouldn’t need a car; it would probably be a lot cheaper to use an Uber for anything they had to drive to.

They’d talked about it, and decided to go to Miami the last week of July. Liam had offered to drive them to the Philadelphia Airport if they decided to leave from there, so that had sealed that decision pretty quickly.

Louis plugged in the information, and waited for the next page to load. Once it did, he scrolled down, looking for the hotel that Harry had suggested.

He found it near the bottom of the page. He clicked on the hotel’s name - the Crown Royal Hotel at Miami - and browsed through some of the pictures.

Harry was right: it was a beautiful hotel, and had everything they would need for a week’s vacation. There was a pool, beach access, complimentary breakfast served every morning and a restaurant where they could eat at night if they wanted to.

He Googled the location of the hotel and found that there were bars and clubs within walking distance and plenty of other cafés and restaurants close by, as well.

Harry had mentioned snorkeling and parasailing, and Louis definitely had interest in those. Harry had also mentioned golf and museums, and Louis’ interest in those activities definitely weren’t as high.

But Louis started looking up everything anyway. He wanted Harry to have just as much fun as he did.

Using the location of the hotel, he searched for as many activities as he could, trying to find the best prices for all of them. Since it was Miami, there were multiples of everything; it just came down to which one would be the best for them.

He quickly lost track of time, getting absorbed in all of his personal research. Thankfully, Nick never came out of his office, otherwise Louis’ might’ve been in trouble.

He heard his phone vibrating from inside of his desk, and since nothing else was going on, he checked the two messages he had waiting for him.

**_Harry: When are you coming home?_ **

**_Harry: Your mom and I just started making dinner. Don’t think we won’t eat without you._ **

Louis smiled and checked the time. It was already 4:40. It would probably be OK if he clocked out for the day.

He looked around and saw that while he had been looking up Miami, at least half of his remaining co-workers had skipped out already.

Louis shook his head. It wasn’t even Friday yet, but everybody was having the same thought as him.

He shut down his computer and grabbed his stuff before getting up. As he left, he walked by Nick’s office and simply said, “Good night.”

Surprisingly, Nick actually looked up at Louis when he passed by. Nick just nodded, but didn’t say anything, which for them, was pretty big.

In the time since Louis’ first article, he and Nick had been on better terms. Nick had – begrudgingly – admitted that Louis had done a good job with the story, and Louis had happily said ‘thank you.’ That was pretty much the entire conversation, but it felt amazing at the time. Nick still didn’t like Louis – that much was clear – but at least they could be civil to each other now.

Louis got in his car and drove off, headed for his mom’s house instead of his own apartment. He was excited to see Harry, even though he’d seen him only two days ago. It was getting more and more real that soon, they would be living in the same apartment, and he would get to see Harry every day.

When he woke up in the morning, Harry would be there. When he got home from work, Harry would be there. And when he went to bed every night, Harry would be there. Obviously, Liam would be there all the time, too; but still.

He arrived at his mom’s house twenty minutes later and pulled up to the curb, right behind Harry’s car.

When he walked into the house, it was as loud as it should’ve been. The television was on, Lottie and Fizzy were arguing about redecorating their room upstairs, Phoebe and Daisy were playing with the twins right in front of TV and Dan was asleep on the couch, somehow not being disturbed by any of it. He could hear his mom and Harry in the kitchen, laughing about something; probably a terrible joke Harry had just told.

Louis sat down next to Ernest and Doris, who were on their backs on the play mat in the middle of the living room.

“How are my favorite twins doing?” he spoke softly. He risked a glance up at the girls, who were both glaring at him.

“ _We_ are doing fine,” Phoebe told him. “And so are the babies.”

“You know I’m just teasing you girls. You came first; of course you’re my favorite.”

“Better say that,” Daisy muttered.

Louis laughed. “Let me go say hi to mom. I’ll be right back.”

He softly kissed the babies on top of their heads, and ruffled the girls’ hair before getting up. Only one set of twins got mad at him for his show of affection.

He walked into the kitchen and saw Harry at the sink, washing off a head of lettuce. When he was done, he moved to the cutting board, grabbed a knife and cut the root off the bottom before pulling the leaves apart.

Louis stood there for a moment, not wanting to say anything just yet. He could absolutely get used to this: coming home to see Harry making a healthy dinner that Louis would say he didn’t want but would ultimately eat anyway just to see the smile on Harry’s face.

He heard someone clearing their throat to the side, and Louis turned to see his mom smiling at him.

“Hi, Louis,” she greeted. “Didn’t even know you were here.”

At the mention of Louis’ name, Harry turned around, his face brightening when he saw his boyfriend standing in the doorway.

“I’ll leave you two alone. Don’t dirty up my kitchen.”

“Eww, mom,” Louis said.

Jay just shrugged, kissed Louis on the cheek and went into the living room.

“Hey, babe,” Harry said.

“Hi.”

Louis walked up and quickly pecked Harry on the lips. “Having fun?”

“I am, actually. I got to feed the babies today. And the twins gave me some braids, as you can see.”

He pointed up to his hair, where his growing locks were pulled back into two identical braids going down the side of his head.

Louis loved how long it was getting. He remembered Harry saying that he wanted to let it grow out last year, but not knowing how it would look or feel. Louis was glad that he’d convinced Harry to do it. The long hair looked great on him, and both of them were enjoying it, just for different reasons.

“Lottie was telling me about how nervous she was to find out her college information,” Harry continued. “She said she should be finding out her roommate’s name next month, and then her classes and stuff soon after that.”

“She’s _so_ nervous,” Louis said. “But she’ll be fine. She’s always been good at making friends wherever she goes. It might take some time for her to warm up to people, but once she does, she’ll be set.”

“I think so, too. And I told her that, but I don’t know if she believed me.”

“She’ll realize it soon enough.”

“And you know that article that Fizzy wrote for her school paper about the dress code? Apparently, it’s going to be a topic of discussion at the last school board meeting for the year. It’s coming up in two weeks, and Fizzy asked if I would want to go with her. I said I totally would.”

Louis watched the pride grow in Harry’s eyes as he spoke about Fizzy. It was well deserved, as Louis could easily admit that despite Louis’ opinions and journalism background, Fizzy would most likely be the one to create change around them. She had a way with words that Louis didn’t even have, and she was only fifteen.

He secretly hoped she would follow in his footsteps and major in some kind of journalism – maybe broadcasting – when she went off to college. But there were still two years until that happened.

Louis raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I’ll go with you; if you don’t mind, of course.”

“Absolutely! You should,” Harry encouraged. “I think she’d love that.”

Louis leaned back against the counter, watching Harry closely.

Harry noticed quickly, and stopped pulling the lettuce apart. “What?”

“You’re going to be an awesome dad one day,” Louis answered without hesitation.

Harry blushed. “Thanks.”

“I mean it. You just take such an interest in my family, and I love it. It’s so genuine and I can tell that you really care.”

Harry shrugged. “I mean, they’re all amazing; how could I not? Besides, you do the same for my family. You always ask my mom about her day and talk business with Robin. I could go for a little less of the ragging on me that you and Gemma like to do, but hey, at least she likes you.”

Louis laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know if I would still be here if Gem didn’t like me.”

“You probably wouldn’t.”

“Hey!” Louis nudged Harry with his shoulder.

“What? You said it; I just agreed.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Can I come back in now?” Jay called out as she re-entered the room. “I need to finish cooking, Louis.”

“No one’s stopping you from cooking, Mom.”

“You are; you’re distracting my sous chef.”

“Your what?” Louis asked.

“Her sous chef,” Harry replied. “Like her second-in-command.”

“Oh. Why can’t I be the second-in-command?”

Jay and Harry both just stared at Louis.

“Well don’t all jump to my defense at once,” Louis grumbled.

Harry chuckled and kissed Louis on the side of the head. “Love you, babe. But we both know you like to eat the food, not get it ready.”

“Is that a crime?”

“OK, out!” Jay commanded. “Let’s go. Dinner will be ready soon, I promise.”

“Fine. I’ll go spend time with the babies. They still love me.”

“We love you, too, Louis. But I think everyone wants to eat at some point today, so get out of here. Go on.”

“Fine.”

Louis stood up straight and turned around. As he did, he snatched a few croutons that were supposed to go in the salad off the counter, popping them in his mouth.

“Louis!” Jay scolded. Harry started giggling, though, which just made Louis smile more than he had been.

Before he left the room, Louis turned back to Harry, who was still watching him.

Louis winked, and his smile grew even wider when the gesture was returned. As he walked away, Louis couldn’t help how happy he felt. It was the best feeling in the world having Harry close by, and with his entire family, no less.

If this was what life was going to be like with Harry, he couldn’t wait to start it.


	32. It'll All Work Out in the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't think this last part would be long enough to make up another chapter, but it was! This is the epilogue, I guess, set almost two months after the last chapter. And this is really, truly the final part!!!!

“How about here?” Louis asked, reaching an empty spot on the grass.

Niall shrugged. “Looks fine to me. It doesn’t matter where we sit, as long as we can look up.”

Louis agreed and shook out his blanket so he could finally sit down.

It was the Fourth of July, and he, Harry, Liam, Niall and Josh all went to Taylor for the night to watch the annual fireworks. They’d arrived just as the sun went down, so they wouldn’t have much longer to wait.

“I’ll FaceTime Zayn in a minute so he can watch the fireworks with us,” Louis said once they were all comfortably seated.

“Yeah, I haven’t talked to him in a while.” Niall sat up straighter, looking surprised at the information.

“Neither have I,” Josh thought out loud. “How’s he been doing?”

Zayn had wound up getting hired for the Collection Manager position, which Zayn and Perrie were thrilled about. However, the Art Institute needed Zayn to start sooner rather than later, which meant that the two of them went out to Chicago the first week of June. They hadn’t been able to get the apartment that they’d originally hoped for, as the lease for the current tenants wasn’t up yet, but they did find one that was a little less expensive, and in the same area.

Zayn had been at his job for a month already, and was loving every second of it. Perrie was working at a bookstore down the street from their apartment. After a week of being at home by herself, she quickly realized she really needed something to do while she waited for her classes to start.

It had been tough for them to move, especially since it was so much sooner than they had anticipated. But everything was working out really nicely so far.

“He’s been good,” Louis told them. “You know, settling in and getting used to the new job and city. He told me he’s been having a great time, though, so that’s good.”

Josh nodded. “Glad to hear it.”

Harry turned to Liam and asked, “Are you going to call Dani and FaceTime with her, too?”

“I hope so,” Liam said. “She’s been really busy, so she told me she would call me when she got a second. Hopefully it’ll be during fireworks so she can watch.”

Dani hadn’t gotten the role with STOMP that she’d been really hoping for, but the casting director had really liked her and called up a friend of hers that worked with musical artists. Two auditions later, Dani was selected as a backup dancer for Jessie J’s European tour, which, coincidentally enough, kicked off in London last week.

The job came with long rehearsal hours as well as a lot of time spent performing and traveling, but Dani was loving being able to dance every other night. Unfortunately, she and Liam were still an ocean apart, but they were able to make time for each other, texting and Face Timing as often as possible.

“And how’s that going?” Josh asked.

“It’s been good. I miss her, obviously, but I’m so proud of her. She’s having a blast, too, based on the cool snapchats she keeps sending me.”

“Can you go visit her on tour?” Niall wondered. “I mean, surely she gets some days off when she can actually see you.”

“We were talking about that,” Liam said. “She sent me the tour dates already, and we’re just trying to figure out when. They’ll be in Paris a week after my birthday, so maybe then?”

“Nice, Li,” Louis teased. “See your girl in the city of love. I like your style.”

“Shut up, Lou.”

“Well it’s all working out, though, right?” Harry asked.

Liam nodded. “Yeah. Definitely. It’s hard, but we knew it would be. We’re taking it one day at a time and we agreed not to go more than a few days without communicating, whether it’s a text or a phone call or Skype call or whatever else. So yeah, we’re good.”

“Happy for you, man,” Josh said.

“Thanks.”

It got dark rather quickly, and before long, it looked like the fireworks would be starting soon.

“Let me call Zayn,” Louis said, pulling out his phone.

He pulled up Zayn’s contact number and tapped the video icon on the screen. It started ringing, and a few seconds later, Zayn answered it.

“Hey!” Zayn said, his face filling the screen.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Louis asked. “You all moved in yet?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Zayn said. “We finally got rid of all the empty boxes we had lying around, and Pez unpacked the last few things today. Yeah, it’s rough moving in to an apartment that’s really and truly yours, you know?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, I know. Trust me.”

The whole ‘living at home until it’s time to move back to school’ thing Harry and Louis had said a few months ago was turning out to be a big joke. Harry had already started bringing things down to Louis’ apartment every time he came to visit. He also sent a bag or two down with Louis whenever he came up to Anne’s house for the weekend.

Just the other day, Louis finally buckled down and bought a new dresser and shelves for Harry to keep his clothes in. Liam helped him put them together and once they were finished, Louis unpacked Harry’s stuff and put them where he thought Harry would like them.

He knew that would turn into a joke, too, seeing as Harry would likely rearrange everything once he was officially living there, and also, because their clothes would wind up mixed together anyway.

“Niall!” Zayn called. “How have you been, man? How’s the job search?”

Niall shook his head. “It’s not good. I’m applying everywhere, but so far, no luck. I haven’t gone for CSN yet, though. So that could wind up being where I go.”

“Yeah? You and Josh would be working together?”

“Exactly, but that’s kind of what we want to avoid, you know? The whole ‘office romance’ thing worked out well for us once, but would it work again?”

“You don’t know until you try,” Zayn reminded him. “Just saying.”

“Yeah, yeah. But anyway, I’m still looking.”

“Well, keep your head up, kid. I’m living proof that sometimes it takes a while to get your dream job.”

Niall grinned. “Thanks, man.”

Suddenly, the picture on Louis’ phone started shifting, and they could hear Zayn whining in the background.

“Hi, boys!” Perrie greeted, her face now on the screen instead of Zayn.

“Pez!” they all said happily.

“How the hell are you?” Louis asked.

“I’m great now that everything is unpacked. God, the tower of boxes Zayn was building was making me a nervous wreck. I’m convinced he was trying to save them all so he could build a fort.”

“You can’t prove that!” Zayn said off-screen.

Perrie just rolled her eyes. “Anyway, when are you boys coming down to visit? Now that we have this place looking like it’s actually lived in.”

Niall winced. “Yeah, about that…”

“Come on! Plane tickets aren’t that expensive! And you’d have a place to sleep; you wouldn’t need a hotel room.”

“Still…”

“Well, Harry and I are going to Miami in a few weeks,” Louis said. “I don’t know if I could get another few days off so soon.”

“Ugh, I’m so jealous you’re going to Miami.” Perrie pouted. “I want to go to Miami.”

“Why can’t we?” Zayn asked, squeezing his face into the picture.

“Well, for starters, I think it’s supposed to be a boyfriend vacation for Harry and Louis. And also, you just started a new job, so I don’t think you’ll be able to get much time off just yet. _Plus_ , we just moved into this apartment; we should actually stay in it for a while.”

Zayn sighed. “I guess.”

Perrie shook her head. “Anyway… Liam! How’s Dani? Where is she?”

“She’s in Dublin,” Liam answered. “Well, no. She was in Dublin tonight. I think they’re moving to Belfast next.”

“That’s so cool. Is she loving it? I bet she’s killing it.”

“Of course she is. I’ve been watching videos on YouTube of all of the performances, trying to find her. And she’s been doing so well. She-”

Liam stopped speaking and looked down at his phone. “She’s calling right now.”

It was a FaceTime, too, so he answered the phone and tried to angle it so everyone could see.

“Hey, babe!” he greeted happily.

“Hi!” Dani waved enthusiastically. “Look at everybody all together in one place! God, I miss you guys so much.”

“We miss you, too!” Liam promised her. “I was just telling everybody about how well you’ve been doing, though.”

“There you go again, bragging about me,” Dani teased. “But thank you. Yeah, I’m having so much fun, you guys.”

“What’s Jessie J like?” Perrie yelled in hopes that Dani would even hear her.

“She’s great! Such a sweetheart. On the first night, she led us all in a champagne toast in hopes of a great tour. Love her. And everybody else has been really nice to me. Like, nobody cares that I’m the new kid, you know? Like, they all treat me like a real professional.”

“That’s awesome,” Josh said. “Yeah, it sucks being the new guy. I remember my first week, my coworkers hot glued everything to my desk. It was a nightmare trying to do anything.”

“That’s awful,” Liam told him.

Josh shrugged. “It was all right. Just part of the initiation process, I guess. Then some other people got hired and it was their turn to get messed with. Just a way of life.”

“Hey, Dani, where are you?” Harry asked. “It’s really dark on your end.”

“I know. I’m in my bunk on the tour bus. I’m so tired, but I feel like that’s an understatement. Once I see these fireworks, I’m gonna crash.”

“Shouldn’t be more than another minute or two,” Liam said.

As if on cue, a hush slowly fell over the crowd as the lights all around campus were slowly turned off. Liam and Louis tried to angle their phones so that Dani, Zayn and Perrie could see the fireworks, too.

Harry shifted closer to Louis and Niall put Josh’s arm around his shoulders as the first firework was lit and shot up into the sky.

One by one, and then, a few at a time, loud cracks could be heard echoing through campus, making the sky seem brighter and brighter.

Louis looked down at his phone and saw Zayn and Perrie happily watching the show. He glanced over to Liam’s phone and saw Dani’s face dimly lit up by the limited light on the bus, her eyes fighting to stay open.

In that moment, Louis felt extremely happy. He had his best friends all with him in some way, making this the first time they’d all been together all summer. It was just another reminder that they were growing up and moving on with their lives, and sometimes that took them away from each other. But the truth was, this was also just a reminder of how strong their friendship really was, that they could still talk and act normally even when there were miles and miles between them.

Louis was proud of his friends, all of whom were happy with where they were in life. Of course, Niall was still job-hunting, but Louis knew that was only temporary. Soon, he’d have a job he loved, just like the rest of them.

Louis leaned down and kissed Harry on the top of his head. Harry smiled and snuggled in closer.

Louis’ mom would be getting married in a few weeks, they had their vacation to look forward to and then, finally, Harry would be moving in. Louis had never hoped to be this happy, but here he was, watching fireworks and sitting with his boyfriend and closest friends.

Louis always said he couldn’t wait to see what the future brought, but he meant it now more than ever before. He had a lot to look forward to in the next few months and way beyond that. Just like the night sky, the future was looking bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooooooollllyyyyy shit it's done! The story is finally complete. Let me just breathe a sigh of relief before I go on...  
> I just want to thank all of you for not giving up on me, especially since it took me A YEAR AND A HALF to finish this. The first chapter was posted in February 2015 (when Zayn was still in the band!), and here we are, in September 2016, with the final chapters. It's unbelievable. I've worked on this fic through two separate family vacations and lots of holidays. There were so many late nights and times when I really just felt like giving up, but I'm so happy I powered through.  
> I already said this on Tumblr, but in case you don't follow me there, I want to write a third part, mostly for my own selfish reasons of not wanting to leave the story unfinished. I think it'll be a ten-chapter story plus an epilogue, and will follow Harry's last semester. There's no way I could just not detail that after this last fic. But I also want to wait to start posting until the story is finished. The irregular updates with WE killed me and I know you guys weren't thrilled with them, either. So, it may take a while, but there will be a final part to this!  
> Anyway, can you believe this story is actually finished?! Because I still can't. I hope you enjoyed what I did with this fic. You're more than welcome to leave me comments here or send me messages on Tumblr. I look forward to hearing from you, since your feedback is what keeps me going!  
> Love you guys! Thank you for reading!  
> <3

**Author's Note:**

> Always read the Beginning and End Notes. Just in case.  
> I post chapters as often as I can, and always update at 8 p.m. EST.  
> If you ever catch me writing in present tense (if you care about that sort of thing), tell me so I can correct it! It's something I'm working on.  
> If you need to talk to me at any time, feel free to visit my [tumblr](http://www.flamboyantommo.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](http://twitter.com/angelique_lee). If you follow me on either, let me know who you are so I definitely follow you back!


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